Chinese state-owned energy giant Sinopec Group will sell off most of its hotels by the end of 2017 and get rid of more than 4,000 company cars as part of efforts to root out corruption and waste, it said on Monday. Since President Xi Jinping's appointment in 2013, the government has cracked down on official corruption and extravagance in China, where the flaunting of personal and often illicit wealth and wasteful public spending have led to widespread criticism of the party. The big state-owned conglomerates have been a particular focus, and several high-ranking executives or former executives at Sinopec have been investigated or jailed. Sinopec Group is the parent of Sinopec Corp, Asia's largest oil refiner. In a statement released by the Communist Party's graft-busting Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Sinopec said that the latest inspection by anti-corruption teams had been very effective at rooting out problems. "It has hit the nail on the head, grasping the essence and crux (of the issue), helping us to find the root of the disease," it said. As part of company efforts to rein in spending, all the hotels it runs will be sold off by late 2017, apart from a "small number" that are competitive or are in exploration areas with no other hotels, it said. State-owned firms in China tend to be very diversified and often own assets that have nothing to do with their core business. The number of cars the company operates will also be slashed by 4,300, it added, a move in line with other government-run organisations and departments. The probe found a series of other problems of waste, including a holiday two executives took to Taiwan in 2013 on the company dime, and four people who did not return to China immediately after a board meeting in gambling hub Macau. Sinopec is not the only state-owned energy company to have been probed by the graft watchdog. In a statement released late on Sunday, China National Offshore Oil Corp, better known as CNOOC, listed the steps it was taking to address the problems inspectors had found there, including promising not to use company money to buy high-end cigarettes and liquor. (Reuters)
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With a three-year government rescue package coming to a close, the highly indebted state of Rajasthan is getting tough - it's demanding farmers start paying for their electricity. In a country where rural communities have become used to free power by hook or by crook, the state that is home to some 70 million is tasking private firms with running power distribution in its big cities as it tries to recoup what it's owed. Restructured power distribution debts alone amount to a quarter of Indian banks' problematic loans, and Rajasthan's state-run utilities owe about 610 billion rupees ($9.2 billion), with some 30 billion rupees due by end-March. While Rajasthan dropped an earlier plan to actually raise existing tariffs after opposition from farmers, state energy minister Pushpendra Singh said the state must push on with plans to enforce existing payment rates. "We can't repay the interest and we still have these losses," Singh told Reuters in an interview. "Every year we are losing more money," he said, estimating a third of Rajasthan's electricity is lost to theft and transmission leaks. With these debt levels echoed across the country, Indian states have little choice but to find ways, extreme or otherwise, to face up to a long-ignored problem. Bad debts aren't just threatening banks - with electricity utilities central to the problem, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's electoral promise of power for all could be jeopardised. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) warned in June that the risk of states failing to repay loans on time was "very high", as a three-year rescue package launched in 2012 comes to an end - the source of Rajasthan's urgency on collecting fees for electricity. And central government has identified the power utility sector as critical to solving banks' bad debt problems. States who cannot pay banks what they owe over the next few years could be forced to turn to the central government for help, putting pressure on India's consolidated fiscal deficit. Modi's government has ruled out a rescue package along the lines of the 2012 scheme launched under the previous government. "We are in touch with each of the states where the discoms (distribution companies) need to be reformed. Those states have been put on notice," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told businessmen at a conference in New Delhi on Wednesday. A top government source said New Delhi was working on a detailed plan. Under India's federal system, responsibility for reform lies with states - all with different appetites for change, and for pursuing villagers who fail to pay. Rural RewiringAcross India, decades of mismanagement and political meddling have left utilities selling electricity below cost and turning a blind eye to rampant theft. The result is state distributors are sitting on $66 billion worth of debt, according to rating agency CRISIL, double the level four years ago. Getting Indians to pay more for their power is not easy. Across the country around a fifth of power goes unpaid for and many still believe free power is a right rather than privilege. Rajasthan's drive to collect payments from farmers and call in private firms to help run power distribution replicates reforms made a decade ago in Modi's home state of Gujarat. Distributors there are now largely profitable, and power is reliably available across most of the state. But reform has proved tough and not all states are willing to take difficult steps. In largely agricultural Uttar Pradesh, farmers pay a fixed fee for unlimited power, equating to about one rupee per unit of electricity, a sixth of the generation cost. The state power company's finance director says it has no plans to raise prices to close that gap. Rajasthan Energy Minister Singh said his administration had little choice but to act: His aim is to halve theft levels in six months and get all farmers paying by meter in a few years. In the meantime, Rajasthan must find a way to keep banks at bay. As well as the almost 30 billion rupees due before the end of March, its utilities owe banks another 59 billion by 2018, one of India's largest lenders said in a recent presentation sent to the government and seen by Reuters. (Reuters)
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Jaiprakash Power Ventures said proceeds from the sale of its two plants to JSW Energy will help the company reduce debt and interest outgo. The company recently sold its two power plants -- 1091 MW Karcham Wangtoo Hydro Electric Plant and 300 MW Baspa-II Hydro Electric Plant -- in Himachal Pradesh to JSW Energy for Rs 9,700 crore. Speaking at the annual general meeting of the company at Waknaghat near Shimla, company Managing Director Suren Jain informed that the disinvestment proceeds by sale of the two plants will help the company in deleveraging its Balance Sheet including reduction of debt and interest out go. The company had?generated 10,420 million units of electricity which was being supplied to various northern and central region states. The Jaypee Group company had posted a net profit of Rs 137.21 crore for the financial year 2014-15 and registered over 48 per cent increase in total income while the profit after tax had jumped over seven times?from Rs 19.73 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 137.21 crore. Meanwhile, in a filing to the BSE, the company said that its Vishnuprayag hydro power plant, which was temporarily shut down in June, has started functioning. "Company's 400 MW Vishnuprayag Hydro Power Plant, which was temporarily shut down wef June 25, 2015, due to heavy rains and storm in Uttarakhand causing unprecedented flood in river Alakhnanda resulting in excessive silt and debris at Barrage, has resumed power generation wef evening of September 11, 2015," the company said in a regulatory filing.
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Indian refiners have been told to prepare to deposit $700 million with United Commercial Bank in readiness for it to pass on the first instalment of oil payments owed to Iran, two sources with knowledge of the matter said, ahead of the expected lifting of sanctions against Tehran. After the landmark nuclear deal between Iran and six major world powers struck on July 14, sanctions could begin to be removed later this year if U.N. inspectors confirm Tehran is complying with its provisions. The refiners -- Essar Oil, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals, Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and HPCL Mittal Energy -- together owe a total of more than $6.6 billion. The $700 million part-payment will be split in line of the proportion owed by each. Last month Reuters reported that Indian refiners were asked to be prepared to pay $1.4 billion dollars to Iran in two equal installments. India is Iran's biggest oil client behind China, though New Delhi has reduced purchases under pressure from sanctions. Indian refiners together owe Iran more than half of the bill for crude bought since February 2013, when a route to pay for Iranian oil through Turkey's Halkbank was stopped. Under an interim nuclear deal in November 2013, some of Iran's blocked funds were released by Asian buyers, including India. Indian companies have deposited 45 percent of their oil payments in a rupee-denominated account at United Commercial Bank, which Iran is allowed to use to buy goods not covered by sanctions, such as food and medicine. (Reuters)
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Arshad KhanCommerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday (10 September) that India has the capacity to produce more power but the weak demand prevents the sector from adding existing power generation capacity. “Slew of government policies will help the power sector to overcome the poor demand,” said Sitharaman. Power analysts feel that the statement made by the ministry is contradictory since electricity supply is an issue in major parts of the country. On the long pending infrastructure projects, she said that government is providing long term funding to complete the delayed projects. She adds, “Problem such as arrears in payments to small and medium contractors during the previous regime will be sorted out to encourage SMEs to participate in building infrastructure.” The minister also said that the number of policies and the steps taken under the new government to will improve India’s ranking in the next ease of doing business index. Currently, India is ranked 142 among 189 nations in the World Bank's 'Ease of Doing Business 2015' index. She said that the country will benefit when the states will play the role of a facilitator between private companies and regulatory bodies. “Since the central government took 29 states on board in December last year to make PM Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative successful, states are showing positive results in promoting business and fighting red-tapism,” said the minister. To increase industrial competitiveness between states, the World Bank together with a professional agency will release the ranking of Indian state on 'ease of doing business' in a week, informed Sitharaman. Addressing a session to boost investment in the north Indian states, the minister said that since the region is growing at the rate of 7.74 per cent and contributing 30 per cent in the national GDP, there is a huge opportunity for domestic and foreign firms to invest in sectors such as energy, automobile, aerospace etc.
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The world's top oil exporter Saudi Aramco will open an office in India by the end of this year to help boost its crude sales in the world's fourth largest oil consuming nation, sources with knowledge of the matter said. India is one of the biggest markets for Saudi oil. In fact, Saudi Arabia has been the top supplier to the South Asian nation for the past 14 years starting April 2001, according to the government data. Saudi Arabia's share in India's crude intake has, however, dropped to about 18.5 percent in the year to March 2015 from about a quarter a decade ago, while India's refinery capacity has doubled to about 4.6 million barrels per day in the period. "With the new office, Aramco will integrate its existing operations in India run through Aramco Overseas with the crude sales business," said one of the sources, adding that India was a bright spot in an otherwise sluggish global oil sector as fuel demand in the country was rising contrary to other regions. Saudi Arabia opened Aramco Overseas in India in 2010 but its role has been limited to engineering, material requirement and inspection-related activity, according to the company website. "Aramco's office in New Delhi will be similar to the one in Tokyo and Seoul which also look into supply of oil to these countries," said a second source. The sources did not want to be named as they were not authorised to speak to media. India will be the fifth country in Asia where the state-owned oil company Aramco will set up offices after Korea, Japan, China and Singapore. It also has Aramco services company in the United States and Aramco Overseas company in Europe. Aramco's push into India comes at a time when fuel demand in the country is rising, driven by the government's focus on local manufacturing, infrastructure development and rising car sales. Below average monsoon rains are also pushing up demand for diesel used in gensets to pump water for irrigation. Kuwait Petroleum Corp also has an office in India that looks into crude sales to the country. (Reuters)
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"Electricity cost pinches me. I want to take some actions to both reduce my bill as well as contribute to a sustainable future. But I am mostly busy with my daily responsibilities. When I sit down to think of what I can do for energy efficiency, all I have with me are monthly bills which don't give me sufficient information on what information should I take."As a facility head or the CFO of an organization, do you feel the same? Another common experience across all our customers has been that there are many energy efficiency or service companies that would offer wide range of energy efficiency products/services - ranging from installation of rooftop solar to replacing your LED lights or even replacing your inefficient Air Conditioning Equipment with more efficient equipment. Taking these decisions are often difficult due to high upfront investment in terms of either capital or infrastructure (in the form of giving your rooftop for solar installation) or both.What if I say that you have many micro power plants operating within your building? These micro power plants are the inefficient operations that go unnoticed because the "Big Daddy" is not watching. These are the hidden treasures of energy from your own building that come in the form of simple actions collectively resulting in more than 10% energy savings. What if you use the power of two of the latest technology trends - "Internet of Things" and "Big Data Analytics" to unearth these hidden energy treasures and that too at possibly no upfront investment?This is where advanced energy data analytics can help you. A smart meter at any load level (e.g. UPS, or Chillers or Air Handling Units) can both measure and communicate the power consumption in real time. Add to this power consumption information, real time data from other sensors that matter (e.g. fuel level sensor in Diesel Tank or temperature sensors in occupied areas) and you have the ingredients to be ready to unearth the micro power plants in your building. So the first thing you need is to equip your facility with such "Internet of Things" in terms of smart energy meters and other relevant sensors and collect all this "Big Data" in a managed cloud platform (to ensure robust data collection at all times without any hassles).This data is of little use unless experts analyze it to derive "actionable insights". These insights should also be delivered to you when it matters i.e. let you know that AC is running in night time when it should not be running or what is the right time to turn on air conditioning in the morning to pre-cool the building at the right temperature by the time office begins.Some of you may already have an extensive (and expensive) "Building Management System (BMS)" already installed in your facility that is collecting all the Air Conditioning and energy data. How many times though has someone looked at the data? The real potential of a BMS is exploited when the collected data is analyzed to decide on the appropriate set points (e.g. what is the right setting for "Leaving Water Temperature" of your Chiller?) so as to result in energy efficient operations.Some of you may also have already invested into a sustainable building by going for green building certifications such as LEED or GRIHA. However, while such buildings are designed with energy efficiency in mind, they may not be operating in the most efficient manner. This is similar to buying a 5-star AC but possibly running it at the set point of 180C thus leading to very high energy consumption.An end to end solution from sensing systems for data collection to data management and analytics to delivering actions (either in the form of SMS/Email notifications or as automated control) will help in identifying the micro power plants within your facility and putting them to good use by eliminating the operational wastage. Recently, some startups have emerged that offer such end to end solution and that too with zero upfront investment model. It then is a no brainer - try them out. If you don't save more than what you are paying them, stop their solution.The author, Amarjeet Singh, is founder of Zenatix and Prof at IIIT DelhiLinkedIn: http://bit.ly/1KFPvfv
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Power producer Hindustan Powerprojects and IPPAI (Independent power producers association of India) jointly organised the 4th edition of the IPPAI Power Awards 2015.This year also witnessed the launch of the Award for Innovation that recognises an entity's innovative contribution towards waste to energy, waste heat to energy, energy storage and other such energy efficiency related activities in the power sector. Ratul Puri Chairman, Hindustan Powerprojects, said: "We need timely commissioning of new projects and also ensure revival of stranded capacity to meet India's surging demand for power. This can be achieved by innovative approach along with well planned risk mitigated approach hence we introduced this category to recognize the players who have been adopting this route."Ravi Arya, President Thermal, Hindustan Powerprojects, "We recently commissioned the first unit (600 MW) of our flagship thermal power project at Anuppur and hence we realised that it is essential for the industry to do more with what it already has - increase the efficiency of its production and transmission segments and save a lot of electricity that gets lost in the process of translation."Among the prize winners for innovation category were Sesa Sterlite for modification to stabilize coal fired power plant, BSES Yamuna Power - IMOS, BSES Rajdhani Power - Modular Integrated Distribution Automation System (MIDAS), Reliance Infrastructure - Feeder Pillar box Design for theft control, Welspun - The methodology of laying cable in hilly terrain, JSW Energy Ltd - utilisation of surplus blast furnace gas. Other categories were Best Performing Distribution Company - Uttar Gujarat Vij Company Ltd Best Progressive State in Power Sector - Gujarat, Award for Best State to promote Renewable Energy - Tamil Nadu, Best Thermal Power Generator (cheapest producing with efficiency) - Dahanu Thermal Power Station, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. Energy Conservation- Reliance Infrastructure, Wind forecasting Methodology-GE Renewable Energy India."The Indian power sector requires intervention from the regulators and government bodies to sustain the momentum of growth. We should continue to organize such platforms to engage all stakeholders for inclusive development of the sector." adds Ravi Arya, President, Thermal, HPPPL. The conference was supported by the Ministry of Power, the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy and the Ministry of Coal. The Retreat celebrates the achievements of the Indian power and energy sector in which regulators, policymakers and other stakeholders participate.(BW Online Bureau)
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