India added 5,525 MW solar power generation capacity last fiscal, taking the total from this clean source to 12,288 MW.

The country has abundant solar power potential which has been estimated to be 748 GW, New & Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal stated in a written reply to Rajya Sabha .

It had achieved total cumulative solar power generation capacity of 6,763 MW in 2015-16. The capacity was 1,686 MW in 2012-13 which increased to 2,632 MW in 2013-14 and to 3,744 MW in 2014-15.

In a separate reply, Goyal said the government has envisaged 4,800 MW from rooftop solar and 7,200 MW from large scale solar power projects in the country.

India has plans to add 5,000 MW of rooftop solar and 10,000 MW from large scale solar power projects in the current fiscal, he said.

Among states, Andhra Pradesh tops the chart with largest cumulative solar generation capacity of 1,867 MW as on March 31, 2017 followed by Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu at 1,812 MW and 1,691 MW respectively.

Goyal said that in its submission to the United Nations Frame Work Convention on Climate Change on Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), the government has said that India will achieve 40 per cent cumulative Electric power capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources by 2030.

It will be done with the help of transfer of technology and low cost International Finance which includes Green Climate Fund, he said.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/india-s-solar-power-capacity-crosses-12-gw-117041001098_1.html

The Centre is committed to ensure 24×7 affordable, quality and uninterrupted power, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said while inaugurating a rural feeder monitoring scheme here on Tuesday.

Goyal said the Centre has asked power distribution companies to devise a system so that consumers can be intimated about expected power cuts and their duration. They should also be intimated after the power cuts end. In this system, the consumer could also view real time power outages in any part of the country and lodge a complaint on power outages in his area, the minister said.

“I would like to urge all the states to join in this excellent initiative to be a part of this effort so that anywhere in the country, if there is a problem of power outage, the people know about it in advance. It will help save many lives in hospitals, help people better plan their lives,” the minister said.

Goyal said it would monitor the quantity and quality parameters of power supply in rural areas of the country. The entire data would also be hosted on National Power Portal (NPP) on real time basis and may be accessed by various stake holders through web services. In order to facilitate real time communication of faults appearing in power supply, the government has set December 2017 as the deadline to achieve cent per cent rural feeder monitoring by installing additional meters and modems on all feeders across the country, he said. These meters would be Geo-tagged to pinpoint the cause and location of the fault and address it at the earliest, the minister said.
Source : http://www.thestatesman.com/india/centre-committed-to-24×7-power-supply-goyal-1491932534.html

The summer of 2017 may not prove as uncomfortable for electricity consumers across India as the season in previous years, thanks to surplus power generation capacity, adequate coal stocks and improved purchasing ability of distribution companies.

Barring pockets in certain states such as Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir which lack inter-state transmission connectivity, consumers in most other regions are likely to have sufficient electricity access.

Generators are looking forward to better utilisation of power plants, resulting in better revenues, as the Meteorological Department has predicted a warmer summer this year. Power prices in the spot market touched Rs 3 per unit in the last week of March, following a sudden spurt in temperatures due to heat wave conditions in most parts of the country.
The prices have now been settled at about Rs 2.85 per unit with increased supply from underutilised projects, but rates for southern states have risen to Rs 3.65 per unit.

A senior official in the Central Electricity Authority said states such as Bihar, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Punjab have made affordable short-term power arrangements for the summer season at an average tariff of Rs 3.5 per unit.

Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu are among the states that often buy electricity from power exchanges.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/58100185.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

The State-run Power Grid Corporation has commissioned the 765 kV Wardha-Nizamabad D/C line along with the 765/400 kV Nizamabad GIS Substation, well ahead of scheduled completion time of May 2018.

The completion of this project along with some other transmission lines will significantly boost inter-regional connectivity.

V Sekhar, Executive Director, Southern Region-I, has informed that this system will facilitate import of power from Western Region, mainly Chattisgarh, for which long-term access has been granted to Telangana. According to the desire of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, the project was fast-tracked and completed in a record time. Power Grid expressed its gratitude for the support rendered by the State and various districts administration to complete this project. This line will play a big role in transmission of power from other States, particularly the power surplus State of Chattisgarh.

Enhancing capacity
During 2016-17, Power Grid commissioned another major inter-regional link in the corridor of 765kV Angul–Srikakulam–Vemagiri D/C line facilitating the import of Eastern Region power into Southern Region in January 2017.

With the commissioning of the above two links, an inter-regional power transfer capacity of 9,000 MW is made available to the entire Southern Region.

Apart from the above transmission links, a 400/220 kV Substation to evacuate power from Solar Park at NP Kunta was commissioned in a record period of seven months from handing over of land during 2016-17. This has greatly boosted the renewable energy integration into the grid.

Vemagiri, other projects

During 2017-18, Power Grid through its subsidiary PSITSL, will be implementing the transmission system beyond Vemagiri which will enable power transfer to the new Capital region of Andhra Pradesh and further connection to Kadapa and Tumkur.

The works of 800 kV Raigarh-Pugulur HVDC project will also be under implementation and the completion of which will enable further inter-regional power transfer capacity of 6,000 MW for the Southern Region.

NTPC‘s 800-MW Koldam Hydro Power Station has achieved a record power generation of 3,225 million units against the design capacity of 3054 million units during the financial year 2016-17, which is more than 5 per cent above the design energy, said Sanjeev Kishore, Group General Manager of the power station. The Group General Manager informed that 2016-17 was the first full year of operations of the power plant.

Sanjeev Kishore said that the power plant had thus surpassed all the targets of generation. The plant, he added, had also surpassed the normative declared capacity of 90 per cent by achieving 106.42 per cent with annual PLF of 46 per cent which was nearly 2 per cent more than the design PLF.

The financial year 2016-17, Sanjeev Kishore informed, was a year of laudable achievements on many fronts like achieving the highest monthly generation of 641.02 million units during the month of August 2016, and highest daily generation of 20.86 million units on 17 June, 2016.

The surpassing of Declared Capacity by 110.10 per cent during May 2016, Kishore said, was highest in the country’s hydro power sector. Similarly, the achievement of 107.27 per cent of Plant Load Factor (PLF), achieved in July 2016, he added, was also the highest among the central and state sector power stations in the country.

Sanjeev Kishore attributes the achievements in front of power generation to the efficient machine and water management affected by engineers of the power station. Talking about the annual maintenance of the machines, he informed that inspection of all the machines had already been completed successfully between 4 to 5 days for each machine against the target of 10 days.

With a head of 138 meter, the machines, the Group General Manager told required a flow of 750 cumecs of water while presently the flow in river Satluj was about 118 cumecs (Cubic Meter per Second) on an average which is on an increasing trend with the onset of summer. As per requirement of the grid and schedules given by the Northern Region Load Dispatch Centre (NRLDC), the power plant, he informed was presently being operated between 6.15 hrs to 7.45 hrs and 18.15 hrs to 20.30 hrs.

The 800-MW Koldam Hydro Power Station, Sanjeev Kishore informed, was the first hydro power venture of the country’s largest power producer NTPC Limited. He added that the Maharatna NTPC had crossed the mark of 50,000 MW and the installed capacity was 50,498 MW. The company, he told, was operating as many as 19 coal-based power stations 7 gas-based power stations and one hydro power station in the country. It has also launched as many as 10 renewable energy projects to harness solar energy with an aggregated capacity of 620 MW. The company is also operating 9 power plants under joint venture and subsidiaries, he said. NTPC has also ventured in the field of Wind Power generation as well as Solar Power generation in view of the government of India’s ambitious plan of promoting New & Renewable Sources of energy in the country.

The Koldam Hydro Power Plant, Sanjeev Kishore, informed, was meeting the energy needs of the northern region states viz, Himachal, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP and Uttarakhand, where power is being distributed as per the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with these states.

The state of Himachal Pradesh, Sanjeev Kishore added was also getting 13 per cent of power generated which includes 12 percent power as royalty and 1 percent for Local Area Development Fund.

Source : http://www.millenniumpost.in/business/ntpcs-800-mw-koldam-hydro-power-station-exceeds-all-generation-targets-234651

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.