Of the 40 odd cases in coal blocks allocation scam that took place during the previous UPA regime, in which former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also an accused, 18 people and six companies have been convicted in six cases till now by a special court. While in the case of Singh criminal proceedings have been stayed by the Supreme Court, the trial court has been pressing ahead with other matters and has convicted f...

NAGPUR: The designated consumer representative of Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC), Ashok Pendse, has questioned the commission’s rationale of giving relief to Adani Power at the cost of MSEDCL consumers.  Due to the order, MSEDCL will have to pay about Rs60 crore to Adani, which will be recovered from consumers by way of higher tariff. While granting reli...

PATIALA : Terming the proposed amendment in the Electricity Act, 2003, as against the federal structure governing Centre-State relations, Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has written a dissent note to the Centre on the issue. Power engineers of the state have dubbed the proposed changes as a way to privatise the sector. “It will lead to endless disputes,” said Shilender Dubey, All-India pr...

Before doing a nationwide roll-out of direct transfers in power subsidies, it is important to conduct more pilots The Ministry of Power is championing the mandatory use of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for all electricity subsidies. This has been proposed in the recent draft amendments to the Electricity Act and the National Tariff Policy. DBT involves subsidy provision in the bank accounts of consumers as oppo...

Delivering electricity to nearly every village in India has been one of the most celebrated achievements of the Narendra Modi government. However, a study by Sreekumar Nhalur and others published in the latest Economic and Political Weekly suggests it may be too soon to celebrate. The authors argue that while there has been progress in providing electricity connections to rural households, ther...

A contractor who was arrested in an alleged scam in the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has revealed that he had paid a bribe of Rs 80 lakh to officials for releasing payment against his bills. The accused, Manoj Duhan of Duhan Electrical Works Private Limited, got contract worth nearly Rs 250 crore last year. He was allegedly hand in glove with DHBVN officials in perpetrating a scam of Rs 18.70 crore i...

NEW DELHI: Private powercompanies said the recommendations of the cabinet secretary-led panel on stressed thermal assets will help the projects but the government should have specified timelines to ensure expeditious implementation. Association of Power Producers director general Ashok Khurana said a time frame for operationalising these recommendations would help to ensure expeditious implementation. He...

Bathinda: The Punjab State PowerCorporation Limited (PSPCL) is going to set up a 60-65 MW paddy straw-based power plant at the cost of Rs 150 crore. PSPCL’s board of directors (BoD) in a meeting on Wednesday cleared the proposal for the project at the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Power (GNDTP) plant in Bathinda.  It will be one of the largest straw-based plants and around 4 lakh tonne paddy str...

Helping another Indian state in turning around the face of its energy infrastructure, the World Bank has now come forward with a $310 million loan assistance for Jharkhand. The agreement, signed between the World Bank, Jharkhand state government. and the government of India, will help provide reliable, quality, and affordable 24×7 electricity to the citizens of Jharkhand. The loan ha...

CHENNAI: In a significant move, Union environment ministry has standardised conditions for issuing environment clearances for all thermal power plants and made baseline health assessments and periodic health monitoring mandatory. In an Office Memorandum (OM) issued on November 19, the ministry for the first time made it mandatory for all new thermal power plants in the country to comply with "Human Health and...