MUMBAI: The government is working on a plan to end dependency on coal imports in next 3-4 months in order to facilitate consumption of the surplus fossil fuel produced by Coal India BSE 0.99 %.
“When I took charge in 2014, I was faced with the challenge of inadequate supply of fuel. But now after two years we have come to a point where we have surplus coal and we are worried how to sell the surplus,”.
He was addressing a gathering at the 50-year celebration of council for fair business practices (CFBP).
“To tackle this problem of surplus, my ministry has drawn up an entire programme to see how we can completely eliminate import of coal by any state government or state discom in the next 3-4 months,”.
For almost 6-7 decades after independence, the country had got used to power and coal shortage but today there is a situation of surplus production.
“The one billion target (of coal production) that I announced was an off the cuff remark for meeting of shortage of coal and I was criticised for this. But today we are worried how are we going to sell the excess production”.
There is an availability of almost 20 days stock and there is not a single plant in the country which is shut due to shortage of coal.
It was earlier reported that the government has decided to push back its target of coal production of one billion tonne by 2020 as it does not have takers for the produce.
Coal India had set a target of 598 MT of production in 2016-17.
JAIPUR: Assuring small-scale businessmen that the era of e-commerce would not affect their trade, Union minister Piyush Goyal today said the importance of corner stores and small shops would only increase in the coming days as compared to big shopping malls.
Citing examples of America and Europe, the Union Minister of State for Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy said the relevance of corner stores was increasing and big malls were becoming “unviable”. Therefore, he said small-scale businessmen should not have any concern.
“The relevance of small shops would not lessen. In America and Europe, the number of corner stores is increasing whereas the big malls are being shut down. In the era of e-commerce, the relevance and importance of small shops would only increase,” Goyal said at the 3rd Yuvak-Yuvti Parichay Sammelan of Shri Agrawal Parmarth Seva Samiti here.
“Delegations come to us to express concern over the impact of supermarkets and e-commerce on small businesses but I do not see any concern because I understand that supermarkets are now becoming unviable and e-commerce will only benefit small businesses. Corner stores and shops will continue to be relevant,” he said.
As compared to supermarkets, goods purchased from small shops are cheaper. The customer not only has to pay more for the goods but also has to spend on parking, food etc. at the malls, the Union minister pointed out.
On another note, Goyal said politics is a “means to serve the society”. He said there were certain customs in the society which needed to be “eliminated”.
“The time has come to link the community with active politics and serve the society as a whole. Members of the community have the capability to serve it with honesty and more and more people should come forward to do that through politics,” he said.
The Union minister lamented the fact that even after 70 years since Independence, nearly 20-22 crore people in the country were without electricity.
“Crores of students are deprived of good education. They are forced to drop out and work at farms. The reason behind this is that good people did not join politics. I want to provide electricity to every household. This too is a community service in a way,” said Goyal.
He said in the coming years, the eastern states would get Rs 3.25 lakh crore from the auction of coal blocks and the money will be spent on public service and welfare of people.
“Work Cross Functional, think beyond these four Ministries and imbibe best practices, novel innovations and ideas so as to perform to the best of your potential.” These were the inspiring words of Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines during the Ministerial review meeting of senior officers of the Ministries of Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines held here today.
The Minister, noting the key role of team spirit, coordination and determination in achieving success, said that success comes from the right balance, cohesiveness and unity in the team. Accepting failure is equally important as success as it is the torch bearer for improvement and a stepping stone for future success.
Having a motivational interaction with the officers during the event, cricketer Yuvraj Singh stressed on the importance of fighting failure and difficult times head on and bouncing back twice as strong in life. He further added that no target is bigger than the will to achieve it. Playing as a united team and motivating each member to perform to the best is the key to success. He added that criticism is critical in shaping the future course in life. “Criticism can put you down, but teaches you to explore yourself and improve”, said Yuvraj Singh.
Yuvraj, answering a question on individual success versus team success, noted that when you perform well but still the team loses, there may be a momentary feeling of achievement. In the broader picture, it is only the success of the team that gives you a sustained sense of achievement. He thus motivated the officers to work as a cohesive team and work for the development and growth of society at large.
Shri Piyush Goyal, congratulating Yuvraj Singh on his fighting spirit and his contribution towards fighting cancer in the society, requested him to scale up the functions of his charity foundation ‘YouWeCa’, in coordination with Government efforts, and help those who do not have the resources to fight the dreadful disease, on a larger scale.
During the day, there were presentations by the Secretaries of the Ministries on the detailed action plans of their Ministries for the near future. There were also presentations by senior officers on important subjects like UDAY, Mobile Apps (GARV, URJA, TARANG, UJALA, VIDYUT PRAVAH, DEEP, URJA MITRA, URJA NET PLATFORM), Rural Electrification, Waste Water Management, Coal Import Substitution, Use of Technology to prevent Coal Theft, Rooftop Solar Energy Solutions, Electric Vehicles, inter alia.
The presentations by the Secretaries touched upon guiding principles on which their Ministries are functioning. These included active stakeholder participation, use of technology to improve transparency, accountability & governance, skill enhancement and job creation, energy efficiency, real time performance evaluation of the schemes at ground level through third party and incorporating competitive ethos on inter sector, inter ministry and interstate levels so as to achieve the larger interest of the nation.
During the fruitful brainstorming sessions, valuable inputs and innovative suggestions came in from the officers present about improving the functioning of the schemes & programmes of the Ministries in particular, and bringing about institutional, behavioural and procedural reforms in the Power, Coal, Mining and Renewable Energy sectors.
In his concluding remarks, Shri Goyal motivated the officers to become the agents of change and work whole heartedly keeping National interest in mind. The minister said ” Shun Status Quoism and be a Game Changer”, while asking the officers to overcome historical challenges plaguing our system. He expressed immense confidence in the ability of his team in serving the people of India to the best of each one’s capability.
The distinguished gathering during the whole day’s event included the Secretaries and over 300 senior officers above Director level of the Ministries of Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines. Also present were CMDs of various public sector undertakings under the four Ministries and officers of the field offices of the PSUs participating through video conferencing mode.
Source Link: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=149664
Union Minister for power Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said there is no thermal power plant in India which is stranded for want of coal, largely due to increase in coal production and improved offtake of the fuel by generation plants.
“The nation as a whole has sufficient supply of coal. Even if no coal is mined for the next 50-60 days, the power industry can be rest assured that it would get an uninterrupted supply of coal to keep plants running,” he added.
In his address at the investors’ conference here, Goyal indicated that the proposed trade union strike slated for September 2 would not have any impact on the supply situation. He said massive quantities of coal have been allocated through e-auctions and the new coal linkage policy is under dicussion and finalisation.
“Creating sufficient power generation capacity, helping state discoms to turn around and making power affordable to all are the priority areas of the Government,” he noted.
Terming the UDAY (Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana) as the game changer, Goyal said its impact has been on the financial side as losses of discoms are coming down.
“Interest costs have come down and the results are encouraging. The states are serious this time in implementing power sector reforms,” he said.
According to the minister, affordability of power will be very important for the new industries to be set up and investments to flow into India especially when the appetite for expensive power is not there. Citing the example of Punjab, which has a set a new, lower power tariff for the new industries being set up in the state, Goyal asked Maharashtra also to follow suit. He urged the Maharashtra CM to consider a separate power tariff window for new industries and other consumers to boost power consumption.
“By 2020, India can double its power generation. That would give confidence and comfort to the industry, farmers need not be distressed and homes will not have to run dark,” Goyal said.
NEW DELHI: The power ministry plans to set up two funds of $1 billion each to enable alternative financing options for stressed power assets and renewable energy projects. The two funds have been proposed under the ambit of the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).
“NIIF is the fund of funds within which we will set up a sub-fund which will focus on renewable energy projects and give investment support for faster ramp up of renewable energy. It is under our active consideration and we may launch it in the near future,” power minister Piyush Goyal told ET in an interview. “We are also in dialogue with certain bankers to see if we could look at a stressed power asset fund. It may take us some more months to put its framework in place.”
Asked about the size of the funds, Goyal said, “Each of these funds could easily be of the size of $1 billion.” The government set up the Rs 40,000 crore NIIF in December as an investment vehicle to fund commercially viable greenfield, brownfield and stalled projects. The power ministry’s renewable energy fund will be seeded with initial capital from a few state-run companies and will be driven largely by the private sector.
“It will be run and managed by an investment manager who will be chosen through international bidding. We would like to keep the entire fund very professionally managed – something like a Temasek or a GIC model. We have the entire framework in place. We have also got investment commitments of REC, PFC and NTPC already lined up. This fund can be launched quickly,” Goyal said. Temasek and GIC are Singapore government-owned investment firms.
Finance Minister ArunJaitley had sought investment from Singapore in NIIF at a meeting on Friday with visiting Deputy Prime Minister TharmanShanmugaratnam.
Goyal said the Centre is working on a mega investment plan for the power sector that includes extending investment support to the tune of Rs 1.1 lakh crore to states under the DeenDayalUpadhyay Gram JyotiYojana and the Integrated Power Development Scheme. Additional investments worth over Rs 1 lakh crore will materialise through the implementation of four planned ultra mega power projects of 4,000 MW capacity each.
Goyal said the recent rationalisation of rail freight rates for coal transport and the cut in prices of higher-grade coal will help to ease costly imports of the fuel. “We have also regulated coal output in the past few months, resulting in some depletion of stocks at coal mines and power stations,” he said.
The minister said he hoped distribution utilities in Haryana would start reporting profits next year and Rajasthan discoms would turn profitable in 2019 with the implementation of the UjjwalDiscom Assurance Yojana scheme.
He said controversy over electrification of NaglaFatela village in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh was a “blatant attempt by the state government at misleading the centre.”
“We do not need any change in land laws to acquire land for public projects”, said minister with independent charge for power, coal, mines and renewable energy Piyush Goyal at a book release event in New Delhi on Monday.
According to Goyal, he has been flooded with requests from land holders from different parts of the country, who want the government to buy their land. “The requests are from all areas; they are willing to sell under the current laws”.
The minister’s comments are significant since large segments of industry have claimed it has become impossible for them to buy land for putting up projects under the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, which governs land sales in rural areas of the country. The Act, passed by the previous United Progressive Alliance government, has been pilloried for its insistence on carrying out social impact assessment prior to any large-scale acquisition of land by a government or private body in for non-agricultural purposes. The current dispensation tried a limited amendment to the Act to exempt certain projects like roads, infrastructure and those for setting up industrial zones from the stiff requirements, but it could not get the majority to pass Parliament.
Government on Monday said that coal allocation via the electronic auction (e-auction) route rose by 29% in 2015-16, fetching 33% more than the notified prices.
“The increase in coal quantity allocated in 2015-16 through e-auction was about 29%, that garnered about 33% higher prices over the notified prices,” Piyush Goyal, Coal and Power Minister, said in a reply to Rajya Sabha on Monday.
The increase in booking value through e-auction in 2015-16 was Rs 1,121.06 crore, he said.
“Sale through e-auction was augmented in 2015-16 through separate windows for power plants and non-power sector including captive power plants,” the Minister added.
In a separate reply, the he said that as on August 3, 2016, the coal stock in the power plants is 30.3 million tonnes (Mt), which is sufficient for 22 days of operation of power plants, as against the normative stock of 21 days.
“At present, there is no power station with critical coal stock,” he added.
NEW DELHI: The Centre today assured that Andhra Pradesh’s greenfield capital city Amaravati would not have any shortage of power transmission capacity.
The Andhra Pradesh Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (APTRANSCO) has planned a transmission network of 3,830 MVA capacity around the capital city to meet the anticipated demand, it said.
“I can assure that at no point of time, the new capital of Amaravati will have any shortage of transmission capacity,” Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha.
The state government determines the requirement of power. Once the lines come up, they pick up the cost of transmission infrastructure of the state. So, the plans to set up power transmission corridors are co-terminus with the development of Amaravati, he said.
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in consultation with APTRANSCO has planned 400/220 kilo Volt (kV) at Elluru, Chilakaluripet, Gudivada and Inavolu along with Associated Transmission System for meeting load demand in and around Vijayawada and proposed capital city of Amaravati, he added.
Responding to a supplementary raised by TDP leader C M Ramesh on status of pending green projects in the state, the Minister said Andhra Pradesh is the first state to take up green energy corridor and solar power park concepts.
Almost 1,500 MW transmission has been set up in and around Ananthapur and 250 MW has already been commissioned. The second phase of 750 MW transmission would be ready by March 2017 and 500 MW will be ready by September 2017, thereby making this a vibrant solar power park, he said.
“For other solar parks, the state government is in dialogue with the Ministry of Renewable Energy for procurement of adequate land which will help us implement the solar parks. As and when the land gets available, we will again plan the transmission infrastructure,” Goyal said.
He also noted that the Centre cannot plan transmission in advance. “There has to be a potential buyer. That buyer has to enter into an agreement with transmission companies which will ensure the payment of transmission lines,” he added.
To a suggestion by RJD leader Prem Chand Gupta on easy permission norms for solar projects amid problems of acquiring land, the Minister said “more and more people should come forward to give land, lease or owned, so that we can expand the solar energy capacity in the country.”
But the Centre cannot do the bidding unless the state government enters into power purchasing agreement, he said.
“I encourage member wherever they can come up with land, solar parks can be set up. They can talk to respective states. If a state is willing to enter into an agreement, the central government will certainly facilitate the bidding process,” Goyal added.
There is no shortage of power in the country to cater to the demands of states and government is trying to fully tap the potential of new and renewable energy to produce 175 Gigawatt of power by 2022, Rajya Sabha was informed today.
Power Minister Piyush Goyal also said the government was exploring producing energy from waste and garbage and clearance of certain projects were awaited from National Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court, monitoring the use of technology which does not impact on environment.
“There is no shortage of power in the country. We have sufficient power and if any state wants to buy power, one can do so from a portal now.
“Total potential in India from new and renewable energy is huge and immense and the total potential is certainly not being exploited. This government has embarked on a plan for producing 100 GW planned capacity in solar and an overall five-fold increase in renewable energy to 175 GW by 2022,” Goyal told members during the Question Hour.
Replying to supplementaries, the Minister said as regards the total amount of energy generated last year from solar power and renewable sources of energy put together was 65 billion units.
“In 32 years, the country barely had 34 MW of renewable energy capacity and the total solar power capacity is 2,632 MW but we have added 4,130 MW capacity in last two years. This is almost 1.5 times in two years against what was added in last 32 years,” Goyal said.
As per the new tariff policy, government has made compulsory grid inclusion for all new projects converting waste into energy, he said.
“Government is awaiting clearance of technology for use by certain projects to convert waste into energy. The NGT and Supreme Court are monitoring the technology used for proposed plants for converting waste and garbage into energy. We are in discussion with foreign makers for use of technology, “he said.
The Minister also said there was a proposal to tap the potential of wind power along the 7,500 km coastline in the country, but the cost turns out to be higher than in Europe.
Vanijya Bhawan, 16, Akbar Rd, New Delhi - 110001
Lok Kalyan Karyalay - 56, Balasinor Society, SV Road, Opp Fire Brigade, Kandivali West, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400067