Larsen & Toubro, India's biggest engineering conglomerate, plans to sell a stake in its wholly-owned infrastructure unit within the next two months, chairman A.M. Naik said at the company's annual shareholder's meeting on 24 August.L&T Infrastructure Development Projects Ltd (L&T IDPL) was in talks with private-equity investors including Temasek Holdings to raise $250 million to $300 million, three sources told Reuters in May.(Reuters)
Read More
The government on 24 August said that auction of 54 coal blocks would not be possible this year because of the long process involved in it."It (the allocation of coal mines through competitive bidding route) would not be possible this year," coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal told reporters in New Delhi."Our government believes in transparency. All the coal blocks (to be allocated through auction route) were identified," the minister added.He also said that once Crisil submits its report — on the methodology to determine the reserve price for auction of 54 mines the ministry has identified for allocation — the bidding process would begin."The coal ministry will ensure that that there is no lacunae in any process," the minister said.The minister's statement comes in the context of a CAG report estimating a huge gain of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to private firms in allocation of 57 coal blocks, disrupting Parliament for the fourth consecutive day.On the day on which the CAG report was tabled in the Parliament last week, the minister had told reporters that the process of allocation of coal blocks through auction route would begin soon.Global firm Crisil had emerged as the lowest financial bidder for the coal ministry's contract to prepare the methodology for determining reserve price for coal block auctions and the coal ministry had asked it to submit its report in three months.The coal ministry has identified 54 coal blocks for various sectors, including 16 for power, 12 for steel and 12 for government firms. Reacting to it, finance minister P Chidambaram said, "Crisil is preparing the document. We have asked Crisil to expedite the bidding process. Bidding documents are being prepared in consultation with the State Governments."Once the bidding documents are finalised, the new policy will come into effect. We are trying to quicken the process as much as possible".Replying to a question, Chidambaram who is heading the Group of Minister (GoM) to decide on a regulator for the coal sector said: "We are identifying the aspects which should be with the coal regulator and aspects which should not be with the coal regulator. The bill is being redrafted."I am confident that it will come back to the GoM shortly and I assure you that in one more meeting of the GoM, we will wrap it up and take it to the Cabinet. We certainly don't want the coal regulator to become the old coal control. I hope all of you agree that you want regulation, not licensing control," he said.(PTI)
Read More
Reliance Power has signed a deal with China Datang Corp to develop and operate power and energy projects in India and overseas, the Indian company said in a statement on 24 August' 2012. Reliance, controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, and the state-owned Chinese company will form a partnership to invest in and develop Reliance's coal mines in Indonesia and offer operations and maintenance services to power plants in India and other markets. Financial details of the partnership were not released. Reliance Power and other Indian generators have been increasingly using cheaper Chinese equipment and using Chinese funding to finance some projects. Indian power producers have been slow to expand as fuel and funds have become scarce and cash-strapped distribution utilities buy less power because they are saddled with $35 billion in debt.(Reuters)
Read More
Amid sharp criticism over his elevation as the country's home minister on a day the nation faced its worst electricity blackout, the outgoing power minister Sushilkumar Shinde on 1 August said people should appreciate that electricity supply was restored within hours. Shinde also told a news channel the next day: "I rate myself as an excellent power minister." Starting his career as a humble police sub-inspector and ending up as the home minister who is going to be in charge of the law and order of the entire country, Shinde has been through it all. But perhaps, he will be known as the guy who managed to literally emerge from the darkness of India and land in the North Block. Even before the power was fully restored, the government announced that Shinde has been appointed as home minister in place of P Chidambaram who returned to finance ministry after three-and-half years. Lights went off for a couple of seconds when Chidambaram was giving a monthly report card of his ministry during his interaction with the media at the Press Information Bureau(PIB) conference hall in the heart of the Capital. In fact, as Shinde as power minister had stood up to address parliament one day last May, the chamber had been plunged into darkness and a roar of laughter went up. Rolling power cuts are part of daily life in India, where energy production falls far short of the demands of a fast-growing economy and an increasingly affluent population, but blackouts for two days this week across a vast swathe of the country were no laughing matter. It is not that Shinde as power minister has not added to India's power capacity. India has an installed power capacity of 205,000 megawatts (MW), about 35 per cent more than it had five years ago, thanks to an aggressive drive by the government to add more. However, that is still only about a fifth of China's capacity, and so - even though one third of Indians are not even connected to a power grid - there is a gap between supply and demand, with the peak-hour deficit reaching about 10 per cent. Power Back In HoursShinde told reporters at his residence in New Delhi on 1 August "we got electricity in a matter of hours... people should appreciate how work is done at the grid," Shinde said he has submitted the report on the power crisis to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). "I have briefed PMO...in the USA light (electricity) does not come for four days, here we got it (restored) in a matter of hours," he said. Electricity grids tripped for the second time in two days on 31 July, causing blackouts in 19 states and two Union Territories including the national capital Delhi. Power supplies were fully restored in 15 hours after the wee-hour tripping of grid on 30 July, and it took almost 20 hours to get back electricity in all the areas that saw power failure on 31 July. After the second tripping of the grid, it was officials of Power Grid Corporation of India, the state-owned firm which operates most of the electricity transmission lines in the country, who were tasked with the job of explaining the reasons for the failure. Earlier this week, Shinde had said that in 2003 there was blackout in some states of USA, which got fixed in about four days, while back home the engineers at Power Grid Corp were able to restore power in hours. Shinde blamed the system collapse on some states drawing more than their share of electricity from the overstretched grid. Asia's third-largest economy suffers a peak-hour power deficit of about 10 percent, dragging on economic growth. "This is the second day that something like this has happened. I've given instructions that whoever overdraws power will be punished." The country's southern and western grids were supplying power to help restore services, officials said. The problem has been made worse by a weak monsoon in agricultural states such as wheat-belt Punjab and Uttar Pradesh in the Gangetic plains, which has a larger population than Brazil. With less rain to irrigate crops, more farmers resort to electric pumps to draw water from wells. Power shortages and a creaky road and rail network have weighed heavily on the country's efforts to industrialise. Grappling with the slowest economic growth in nine years, Delhi recently scaled back a target to pump $1 trillion into infrastructure over the next five years. Major industries have dedicated power plants or large diesel generators and are shielded from outages -- but the inconsistent supply hits investment and disrupts small businesses. High consumption of heavily subsidised diesel by farmers and businesses has fuelled a gaping fiscal deficit that the government has vowed to tackle to restore confidence in the economy. But the poor monsoon means a subsidy cut is politically difficult. On 31 July, the Reserve Bank of India cut its economic growth outlook for the fiscal year that ends in March to 6.5 per cent, from the 7.3 per cent assumption made in April, putting its outlook closer to that of many private economists.
Read More
More than 20 hours after India's worst power failure, the three major electricity grids that had collapsed have been restored, Power Grid said on Wednesday.The Northern, Eastern and North Eastern Grids - that cater to over half of the country's 1.2 billion population - were restored by around 0930 hrs (IST) on Wednesday.Triggering a massive power crisis, which brought most parts of the country to a grinding halt, the three grids collapsed at 1300 hours (IST) on Tuesday.According to state-run Power Grid, 100 per cent supplies have been restored in all the three regions."System restored to normal state," Power Grid said in a statement.Full power supply of 30,081 MW has been restored in the northern region, including national capital Delhi.Eastern region, which caters to 10 states and has the largest infrastructure in the country with at least 25,000 MW generation capacity, was the last one to be restored."In the Eastern region, 100 per cent or 11,052 MW supply has been fully restored," it said.Till late Tuesday evening, only 50 per cent of the eastern region had enough electricity supplies.The North East was the first one to be fully restored on Tuesday evening.Even though the exact reason is yet to be ascertained, officials said that problems started in the Eastern Grid and there could also have been over drawals by some states.(PTI)
Read More
Newly-appointed Power Minister Veerappa Moily Wednesday refrained from blaming states for over-drawing electricity that may have led to the collapse of the three grids yesterday and said he will focus on combating the many troubles that are facing the sector.Moily, who took charge of the Ministry this morning, said that he would take stock of the situation and start working on clearing the hurdles facing the sector."First thing is to stabilise the grid and it has to sustain. For that we will work out a proper strategy," he told reporters here.Refraining from blaming the states for over-drawing the electricity from grids and not adhering to a discipline, Moily said he did not want to start his innings with a blame-game."I don't want to start with the blame game...at the appropriate time, we will find out short term and medium term solutions," he said.Taking over the reins of the Ministry at a time when it is steeped in crisis, Moily will have to address the issues ranging from the failure of the three grids that plunged 21 states into darkness, to fuel shortages and the financial health of the distribution companies."I always like challenges in life...these things (electricity transmission and fuel issues) are very sensitive rather hyper sensitive in the sector, problems will crop up at the same time how we combat these problems that becomes a challenge," Moily said."We are very much capable...capacity has been built...that is not the end of the journey we need to do more that is why we are here," he added.The country suffered its worst power crisis yesterday, impacting more than half of the 1.2 billion population, as the three Grids - Northern, Eastern and North Eastern - collapsed.More than 21 states went without electricity for several hours crippling normal life. From miners to passengers to daily commuters were left stranded for hours at a stretch due to the massive power failure.(PTI)
Read More
Triggering a major power crisis, three electricity grids connecting more than 20 states and the national capital collapsed on 31 July.While the northern grid failed for the second straight day, the eastern and north-eastern grids too collapsed. These three grids carry about 50,000 MW of electricity.The collapse has left more than half of the country powerless. Essential services and public transport systems, including Railways and the Delhi Metro were also hit."Grid incident occurred at 1300 hrs affecting the northern grid, eastern grid and north-eastern grid -- System Under Restoration," National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC), under the Power Ministry, said in an update.About 22 states and union territories have been impacted by the failure of the three grids.The northern grid covers nine regions -- Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Chandigarh.At least six states are covered by the eastern grid. They are West Bengal, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Sikkim.Meanwhile, the north eastern grid connects Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.India has five electricity grids -- Northern, Eastern, North Eastern, Southern and Western. All of them are inter- connected, except the Southern grid.All the grids are being run by the state-owned Power Grid Corporation, which operates more than 95,000 circuit km of transmission lines.One circuit km refers to one kilometre of electrical transmission line.Centre Blame States For Overdrawing From Power GridsBlaming overdrawal of power by certain states for the current crisis, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on 31 July said the government is working to bring back normalcy in about one hour."We are trying to restore the situation back to normalcy in one hour or so. We are trying our level best to restore it," Shinde told reporters here as the country faced one of its worst power crisis for the second straight day.It is probably for first time three grids are collapsing simultaneously.Northern Grid failed for the second consecutive day today while Eastern and North Eastern Grids also collapsed this morning, leaving more than half of the country power less.Power Secretary P Uma Shankar told PTI that all essential loads have been brought back, some of them have been restored."We are working on that. In an hour, it (situation) would be restored," he said.Asked about the reasons for the failure of grids, Shinde said some states are drawing electricity over and above their limits. "This was creating problems," he added."This morning only, I was told (by officials) that about 3,000 MW extra power has been over drawn from the Eastern Grid. We have given the direction to either stop it (over drawal) or take action against them," the minister said. (Agencies)
Read More
Power supply in seven states across north India was hit early on Monday following a breakdown in the Northern Grid, an official said. Apart from Delhi, supply in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir were disrupted.The massive grid failure left more than 300 million people without electricity in one of the worst blackouts to hit the country in more than a decade.Millions of people have been affected due to the power failure. Speaking to the media, Power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said 60 per cent of supply has been restored in the northern region. He also said that essential services have been restored and the remaining will be restored in around 2 hours. The minister also said a probe has been ordered into the failure of power in the northern region.Earlier, power supply was disrupted in seven states from 2.32 a.m. It is now partially affected in Delhi and Rajasthan. We are in the process of restoring the supply," VV Sharma, general manager of Power System Operation Corporation Limited, said.According to the Power System Operation Corp Ltd, the exact reasons for the grid failure are being ascertained."The trouble resulted in power outage in the entire northern region, but for parts of Badarpur in south Delhi, Narora and Simbhauli in Uttar Pradesh and Bhinma in Rajasthan," a statement said.The company, a subsidiary of the state-run Power Grid Corporation of India, which manages the grid, said effort was underway to seek supplies from the eastern and the western regions, even as power to the railway system had been partially restored."The restoration of the grid may take a few more hours. The engineers have been trying to restore it since early morning. We are giving first priority to public services like hospitals and transport," Sharma added.Metro services in Delhi has been hit due to power failure. Water and electricity supply across seven states in north India were also hit. The power supply is slowly being restored now.Officials at Delhi's international airport said flights were unaffected.India has a peak-hour power deficit of about 12 per cent, slowing the economy. Delhi's private power company, BSES, said northern India last suffered such a major outage in 2001.The power supply was hit in seven states since the northern grid collapsed. Power was restored in some parts of these states by around 9 am.According to power ministry officials the situation will return to normal by noon in Delhi.Thousands of rush-hour passengers faced lot of problem as metro services were hit and there was major traffic jam in many parts of Delhi.By 9:30 am, the situation was much better on all six lines on the Delhi Metro.Power failure also hit Delhi's six water treatment plants. According to media reports, five of water treatment plants are now operational. Delhi's Jal Board water pumping stations have also been hit. The Jal Board's are being given priority by the power companies.Huge traffic jams and chaos could be seen on the Delhi road's as traffic signals were down due to power failure. The Traffic Police are trying to physically man the traffic at some places.The train services were disrupted in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh due to collapse of the northern grid this morning, leaving a large number ofpassengers stranded.A number of passenger trains bound for Delhi and beyond, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jammu, Ferozepur and Kalka were stranded at way side stations due to failure of electricity, a senior railway official said.He said efforts were on to move the passenger trains with diesel engines after detaching them from running goods trains which would remain halted at way side railway stations.The stations where passenger trains were stranded include Ambala, Kurukshetra, Phillaur, Sirhind, Ludhiana, Phagwara and Karnal.Some trains were stranded mid way as the electric engines hauling them came to a halt due to failure of power. Kalka Chandigarh Delhi Shatabdi Express left the local station 90 minutes behind scheduled departure of 6.53 am after a diesel engine was attached to it.The trains affected include Amritsar Delhi Shatabdi Express, Allahabad Chandigarh Unchahaar, Lucknow Chandigarh Sadbhavna, Howraha Kalka Mail, Delhi Jammu Mail and a number of other super fast, express, passenger and local trains.The official said that the signal system had also blanked at a number of places due to the power failure.The hospital services were also affected in many places.However, operations at the Delhi airport largely remained unaffected due to the failure of Northern Grid. "As soon as there was a disruption in power supply, all our essential services like flight arrival and departure, check-in, baggage handling, aerobridge services were shifted to our back-up system.So all these operations remained normal", an airport spokesperson said. "We have one of the best DG (Diesel Generating) back-up system of the world.However, there might be some disruption in our non-essential services", he added. There were reports of air conditioning not functioning in Terminal 1D and some portions of Terminal 3. Also, there was no power in some retail outlets at the airport."Overall ninety-five percent of our services remained unaffected", a spokesperson said.According to reports, preliminary enquiry shows the collapse happened due to a fault near Agra.(Agencies)
Read More
