Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Shri Piyush Goyal launched ‘Coal Mitra’, a Web portal for flexibility in Utilization of Domestic Coal and released reports on ‘Renewable Energy Integration: Transmission an Enabler’, ‘Green Energy Corridor II’ and ‘Electricity Demand Pattern Analysis’, here today. He was presiding over an event, ‘Empowering the Grid to meet Future Challenges’, organized by the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL), under the auspices of Ministry of Power.

The Coal Mitra Web Portal has been designed to bring about flexibility in Utilization of Domestic Coal by transferring the reserves to more cost efficient State/Centre owned or Private sector generating stations, leading to lower generation costs and ultimately lesser cost of electricity for the consumers.

The web portal would be used by the State/Central Gencos to display information about normative fixed and variable charges of electricity for the previous month as well as margin available for additional generation so as to enable the utilities identify stations for transfer of coal. It would host data on Operational and Financial parameters of each coal based station; Quantity and source of supply coal to the power plant; and Distance of Power plant form the Coal mine.

The Cabinet, on 4th May 2016, approved the proposal for allowing flexibility in utilization of domestic coal amongst power generating stations. Further, Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has issued the methodology for this on 8th June 2016, followed by the issuance of a memorandum by the Ministry of Power on 10th June 2016. The methodology for use of transferred coal in Independent Power Producers (IPPs) generating stations would be issued separately.

During the event, Shri Goyal would be releasing 3 reports viz., ‘Renewable Energy Integration: Transmission, an Enabler’, ‘Green Energy Corridors – II’ and ‘Electricity Demand Pattern Analysis’. The first two reports, prepared by PGCIL, cover aspects of comprehensive transmission plan to integrate renewable energy sources into the National Grid and role of Transmission as an Enabler in growing Renewable Energy (RE) penetration scenario. The last report has been prepared by Power System Operation Corporation Limited (POSOCO).

The ‘Renewable Energy Integration: Transmission, an Enabler’ report covers the study of balancing and stability issues for 15% & 30% RE capacity penetration and the aspects of Balancing Reserve Analysis with Thermal Power Plants, both gas and supercritical coal, Reservoir type Hydro & Pumped Storage Plants and the Way forward.

The ‘Green Energy Corridors-II’ (Part-A) report details about the identified capacity of Solar Parks and transmission infrastructure requirement in various states at Intra-State and Inter-state level. It inter-alia covers the financing options available for rationalization of transmission tariff and the challenges to be addressed to facilitate smooth integration of solar power parks.

The ‘Electricity Demand Pattern Analysis’ report covers the analysis of data archived by POSOCO since 2008 with insights towards diurnal, seasonal and yearly demand patterns, decomposition of demand data into seasonal trends at all levels – National, regional and individual State level. The Demand Pattern Analysis may be used by Central and state level planning agencies for Generation, transmission and distribution planning, Identification of areas/sectors with maximum growth and Behavioral pattern of the population residing in that state/ region. It can also be used as valuable input for research by the academia and the industry.

Making a new announcement at the event, Shri Goyal said that the Power Ministry has approved that henceforth Government and PSUs would be able to swap coal with private companies. Further, he said, “I would like to see the Coal sector open up and achieve the next level of Efficiency in power generation. For this the Ministry is working tirelessly and guidelines for coal swapping would be out in next 30 days.” He envisioned this coal swapping initiative to be cross sectoral and not confined to the power to power sector swaps.

Congratulating PGCIL on achieving 1 lakh crore market capitalization, Shri Goyal said that it is no mean feat to achieve, especially looking at the current state of the global economy. He asked the Maharatna company to develop a robust mechanism to unlock its capital and expand the portfolio rapidly to achieve the target to integrate 175GW Renewable Energy in the National Grid and reach out to 5 crore families still without power. Shri Goyal exhorted PGCIL to grow from an Asset Holding Company to a Project Management and Implementing company. The Minister also commended PGCIL’s exemplary work done in Varanasi to untangle overhead transmission lines by laying down underground cables, a step that needs to be replicated across the nation, he said.

Expressing conviction in India’s global leadership in technical and human skills, the Minister said that in the next 15 years India would quadruple its energy capacity. Shri Goyal also directed the Ministry officials to chalk out a plan to guarantee 24×7 Power to all Telecom towers in the country. “Not a drop of diesel would be used in any telecom tower in the country. Find a way how to achieve this”, he said.

Going a step further, the Minister gave everyone a food for thought when he envisioned the mapping of essential utilities/services like education, health, water supply, power sector infrastructure etc. into mobile apps and then draw up a plan to ensure uninterrupted power supply to all of them. He said that building such a cohesive platform would automatically ensure 24×7 Power for All in the times to come.

Other dignitaries present at the event were Shri P.K. Pujari, Secretary Power, Shri S.D. Dubey, Chairman, CEA, Shri I.S. Jha, CMD, PGCIL, along with senior officials of the Power Ministry, Heads of State Utilities and officials from International Financing Agencies.

Hon’ble Minister Met with the Students of Harvard University

Hon’ble Minister met with CII Officials at CII Head office

Power distribution company Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has recorded a profit for first time ever since its inception in July 1999. From losses of more than  2,088 crore in 2014, the discom registered a profit of 78 crore in the first half of the current financial year. Now, DHBVN officials aim to double the profit by the end of current financial year.

In comparison, Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) has reported a loss of 1,233 crore in the first half of financial year 2016-17 against a loss of 336 crore in the last financial year, reported an analysis by Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC).

DHBVN has been reeling under losses worth crores ever since it was created along with UHBVN and two corporations – Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam and Haryana Power Generation Corporation (HPGC).

DHBVN supplies power to 11 districts of southern Haryana and has always recorded losses worth 2,000 crore or more due to electricity theft, non-payment of dues, transmission and distribution losses and increasing fuel surcharge.

A half-yearly analysis by REC, under Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY), has revealed that DHBVN reported a remarkable achievement with a turnaround from losses as steep as 471 crore in last financial year to a profit of more than 78 crore.

The review was conducted to ascertain the progress of various major operational and financial indicators as per UDAY on the basis of data submitted by discoms and visits by UDAY teams. The analysis report, released early this month, pointed out that the state incurred a loss of 815 crore in financial year 2015-16 for both discoms combined and gave a loss projection of 2,911 crore and ?1,878 crore for 2016-17 and 2017-18 respectively.

The review commended DHVBN for turnaround from loss to profit.

“We focused on replacing old and defective electric meters, placing meters outside buildings, meter sealing, check on thefts, increasing number of feeders, recovery of pending amounts and controlling transmission and distribution losses through various means. We hope to double the profit by the end of this financial year,” said Arun Kumar Verma, managing director, DHBVN.

REC also observed that DHBVN has improved on billing efficiency and reduced aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses while UHBVN is falling short on this front as well.

In its review, the REC observed that a major cause of concern in Haryana was high average cost of supply (ACS) that is 8.37 per unit in current financial year as against the national average of 6.66 per unit.

The analysis observed high incidents of electricity theft in the state as the cost of energy not billed (energy lost) is 1.85 per unit.

When some states were busy finding faults in the rural electrification program of the Centre, Union Minister Piyush Goyal was holding brainstorming sessions with his team at the power ministry and PSUs (including PFC and REC) on how to track and map the process of electrification in every village and household of this country.

The result of this few month long exercise was the launch of GARV II mobile App on Tuesday by Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Piyush Goyal.

As a result, village electrification is no longer about tracking electrification of 18,452 villages in the country.

In line with the government’s promise to provide Power To All households in the country, people from the comfort of their homes and through their mobiles can track progress on household electrification in each of the habitations of about 6 lakh villages in India using the GARV II App.

Explaining the features of the ‘GARV-II’ app, Goyal said that the data in respect of about 6 lakh villages, with more than 15 lakh habitations having 17 crore people, has been mapped for tracking progress on household electrification in each of the habitations of these villages.

This is a remarkable progress over the previous GARV App as in the earlier version of the ‘GARV’ App, launched in October 2015 for the effective and efficient monitoring of village electrification programme, the data of only 18,452 un-electrified villages had been mapped and a 12-stage milestone-based monitoring mechanism was put in place.

Goyal further said that this app is an important part of the ‘Digital India Initiative’ of Government of India and will contribute in further development of the villages.

Further, the Minister informed that the status of village-wise works sanctioned under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and release of funds to the Statesfor these projects has also been mapped in ‘GARV-II’ to monitor progress of works in each village.

The progress is required to be updated by the implementing agencies of the States on day to day basis.

All data would be made available in public domain to ensure transparency, enhance accountability of various stakeholders and facilitate view of near real time progress.

In order to bring more transparency, the Minister asked the Power Ministry officials to place more details regarding discoms, tenders and contracts in public domain.

For places, where internet facilities are not available, Goyal suggested to publish information regarding rural electrification projects like contractor’s name, amount sanctioned by the Government, deadline of the project etc. to be put on boards on the working sites in villages. This will help people in better monitoring of Government’s work, he added.