News Update

PTC India Financial Services (PFS) has reported a 124 per cent rise in standalone net profit to Rs 110 crore for fourth quarter ended March 2017.

India today conducted the ground-breaking ceremony for its first green energy corridor project with an ultra high-voltage direct current (UHVDC) link over 1,800km with the aim to bring power to 80 million people

Many called it ‘Pradhan Mantri Uttar Pradesh Yojana’ since more than 30 per cent of the beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), aimed at giving LPG connections to families below the poverty line, were in the Hindi heartland, where the BJP managed a stupendous electoral victory in March

The goods and services tax may increase solar energy project costs by 12%-18% and generation costs by 40-50 paise per unit, some industry leaders said, although the government said the new taxation regime won’t have much of an impact on them.

Lower solar irradiation may impede the prospects of Odisha to match solar tariff rates which have plunged to a new low of Rs 2.44 per unit in the recent auction conducted for Bhadla solar park in Rajasthan.

The Modi government's key renewable energy initiative -- International Solar Alliance (ISA) -- on Monday received boost when Djibouti, Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire, Somalia and Ghana signed the ISA framework agreement on the sidelines of African Development Bank (AfDB) meeting in Gandhinagar -- aimed a boosting Indo-African ties.

Indian Railways has appointed lawyers V Lakshmi Kumaran and V Sridharan as consultants to prepare it for the goods and services tax (GST), apart from conducting an impact assessment.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday expressed the hope that Kandla port in Gujarat’s Kutch district and Chabahar port in Iran will script a new development cooperation in the region.

The Sajjan Jindal-controlled JSW Group is keen to set up a commercial port at the mouth of the Jatadhari, Odisha, and 13 km south of the Paradip port.

The ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) has proposed to allow state-owned power distribution companies (discoms) to conduct reverse auctions for procuring wind power.

Indian Railways will soon allow private companies to run freight trains from their own private terminals, a move which could potentially break the monopoly of the national transporter on the country's rail roads.

The world of commercials is set to invade the spaces of trains in India, both inside and outside, giving the passengers a feeling familiar to the experience of seeing billboards while driving along highways or sitting in Metro trains.

The Indian Railways is set to launch digital contract, a system of digitisation of its entire supply chain across all zones.

Kochi-based Trans Asian Shipping Service will introduce a fortnightly coastal shipping service linking Dharamtar Port in Maharashtra and the ports in Kerala.

PTC India Financial Services Ltd (PFS) is looking to bring down its cost of borrowings and is in discussions with various entities for competitive costs, the company said in its annual report. 

Roads, coal, power and railways comprise bulk of the projects while land and environment issues accounted for the majority of clearance hurdles. Roughly half the projects are public sector and the rest private plus PPP (public-private partnership). ET spoke to senior PMO officials closely associated with the effort. They spoke on the condition they not be identified.

 Government has specified PTC India Financial Services Limited (PFS) as a 'Financial Institution' (FI) under SARFAESI Act, 2002, a status which would help recover loans effectively. 

 Hyderabad-based Greenko Group has raised $500 million by selling green bonds to overseas investors, marking India's first high-yield issuance of its kind.

 Top state-run energy companies are going to make heavy investments including more than Rs 5,000 crore in equity in a special purpose vehicle to revive fertiliser plants in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh as well as Bihar and BJP-ruled Jharkhand, in a government-directed move that will deliver on promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

 Cairn India has called a shareholders' meeting on September 12 to seek approval for the company's takeover by its parent Vedanta Ltd under a revised all-share deal

 India’s coal ministry, at the urging of state miner Coal India Ltd., is asking the government to levy an environmental tax on a competing fuel in effort to maintain coal’s cost-competitiveness, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

 India’s total power generation rose by 7.13 per cent in April-July FY17, to 391.16 billion units, Parliament was informed on Thursday

 Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) hopes the second unit of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in southern Tamil Nadu, with generation capacity of 1,000 megawatt (Mw), will be connected to the grid by September

 States' demand to hike royality rates on coal to 30 per cent, if accepted, would push up the cost of electricity by 7 per cent or 10-12 paisa/kWh, a report has said. 

 The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has clarified to a Parliamentary committee that only Coal India is allowed to exploit coal bed methane (CBM) from its existing coal blocks.

  India has added around 1,300 MW of solar power generation capacity in the April-July period this fiscal, Parliament was informed today.

 China's state-owned firm has been awarded the contract to build a 4.44-billion US dollars railway line passing through Bangladesh's largest bridge which is currently under construction, a media report said on Thursday

 OIL India Ltd is set to usher into a new era with roadmap drawn to ramp up production and diversification plans to foray into liquefied natural gas (LNG) business on track. 

 Oil prices jumped the most in a month, rising more than 4 percent on Thursday, after comments from the Saudi oil minister about possible action to stabilize prices triggered a round of buying and the International Energy Agency forecast crude markets would tighten in the second half of 2016.

 There is no proposal to convert major ports into corporate companies, Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said today, emphasising that government ports have been showing better performance than the private ones.

 The government owned major ports have registered a steady growth of 5 per cent during the period between April and July. Currently, there are 12 major ports in India.

 Investors are answering the doubting Thomases on Power Minister Piyush Goyal pioneered UDAY Bonds - securities sold to restructure states owned power distributors - with a thumbs-up. Top banks and mutual funds such as Axis Bank, State Bank of India, UTI Mutual, and Kotak Mahindra are lapping up the sovereign bonds' proxy from state governments, which boost the returns.

 Coal India has offered around 2.8 million tonnes of coal in 5-10 years supply contracts to sponge iron manufacturers through an e-auction. As of Monday end, it received bids for around 1.6 million tonnes, or 57% of the volume on offer, a senior Coal India official said.

 Renewable energy has received a big financial stimulus as loans have become easier and cheaper for projects because there are hardly any projects in pipeline for the conventional thermal and hydropower sectors. 

 India's largest power producer NTPC has started trading surplus electricity on power exchange.

 State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) is trying hard, and succeeding, in lowering its exploration cost write-offs, one of the biggest concerns for all oil firms. The write-off has nearly halved in a year and is expected to shrink further.

 Sterlite Grid Power Ventures has applied to raise funds through Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs), the first power infrastructure company to do so.

 The Make In India initiative launched by the government in 2014 seems to be taking shape on the ground. Last month, state-owned Cochin Shipyard and Chennai-based Global United Shipping India proposed a joint bid under the build–operate–transfer model for six new liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessels for gas utility firm GAIL, making it the only Indian bid for the country’s biggest shipping tender.

 Acquisition of Welspun Renewable Energy with a capacity of 1,140 Mw takes Tata Power closer to its objective of generating 30-40 per cent of power through renewable energy by 2025. With 990 Mw capacity dedicated for solar energy, the acquisition will help Tata Power scale up its renewable portfolio to 2,300 Mw (the current comprises operating capacities of 550 Mw of solar energy and 240 Mw of wind power, 245 Mw of solar power is under execution). While the Street wasn’t enthused, given that the Tata Power stock after registering a 52-week high on Monday, ended flat at Rs 75.75 a ...

 In an ambitious plan, the government has prepared a roadmap to connect some of the major national highways in the country. The proposal aims at inter-linking the highways from North to South and East to West in the pattern of a grid, allowing smooth and uninterrupted access from one region to another.

 Sterlite Power Transmission Ltd (SPTL), a company that was demerged from Sterlite Technologies, has filed initial papers with market regulator SEBI for raising funds through Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) on Monday. The company has filed for InvITs through its subsidiary Sterlite Power Grid Ventures.

 Energy security, food security, ‘blue economy’, education, health, skill-building and infrastructure will be the key topics of discussion during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the African continent next month

 The board of ONGC Videsh (OVL) has put on hold a proposal for acquisition of 11% in Rosneft’s Vankorneft that runs the Vankor oil and gas fields in East Siberia. The OVL board wants the government-owned explorer to negotiate a “better price” for the 11% deal as compared with a 15% purchase in the same asset in September 2015.

 The central government on Monday released a draft report that lays down a road map for the use of hydrogen energy and fuel cell technology in the transport sector as it tries to broaden the green economy in India.

 An expert panel of the environment ministry has dealt Adani Power Ltd a double blow by putting its 1,600 megawatt (MW) power plant in Jharkhand on hold in the absence of details regarding the water required for it and asking the firm to scout for another location to expand its existing 4,620 MW power plant in Mundra, Gujarat.

 Falling oil prices seems to have bottomed out, raising hopes of better margins for oil refiners in India.

 India's quest for green energy has crossed a major milestone, with renewable plants, mainly wind and solar, surpassing the capacity of large hydroelectricity projects, which were once the country's biggest source of electricity and regarded as "temples of modern India".

 For the first time in its history, Coal India Ltd on Friday will begin the process of giving coal linkages or fuel supply agreements to customers on the basis of a transparent auction, similar to telecom spectrum auctions.

 Petro dollars from Abu Dhabi are increasingly eyeing a bigger piece of the green energy action in India. Just six months after making its first bet in the country, the Emirates' sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) on Tuesday announced its second investment in the sector, signing a definitive agreement with Greenko Energy Holdings.

 In a big relief to both manufacturers of electrical transformers and power distributors, the Department of Heavy Industry (DHI) has extended the cut-off date to apply new quality control regulations for the supply of equipment.

 The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is planning a second phase of setting up solar parks across the country, twice as ambitious as the first. Unlike the previous one, the new round will set aside a portion where the solar power producer will also have to set up facility to store the energy in batteries.

 The Narendra Modi-led NDA government is readying for next phase of reforms in the energy sector that will seek to end monopoly of state owned enterprises and facilitate entry of private​ players.

 The Power Ministry would soon approach the Cabinet to seek approval for enabling private sector electricity distribution companies (discoms) to get operational benefits of the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY).

 Wind turbinemaker Suzlon is introducing the next generation turbines generators called S111-120 metre hybrid tower in the Indian market

 States with large power deficits have refrained from tapping the fledgling market for spot power, even as electricity is available at much cheaper rates there, than under long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs). While the stressed finances of the state electricity boards (SEBs) is one reason for this, paucity of distribution infrastructure and in some cases sheer unwillingness to try a new mode of purchase also circumscribed the growth of the spot market.

 The solar power tenders continued to gather pace in May as state-owned NTPC and Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) bid out a total of 750 MW in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana under the national solar mission this week.

 At any given minute in India, you can find out how much electricity is for sale and at what price with a few swipes across a smartphone screen—a level of transparency in the nation’s power sector that’s increasing the odds of far-reaching change to end blackouts.

 India will introduce competitive auctions for wind farms this year in a bid to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal for 60 gigawatts (GW) of capacity by 2022.

 India’s aspiration for minimizing the environmental cost to economic development by meeting 40% of its energy needs from non-fossil fuels by 2030 has made its nascent solar power industry the destination for global investors, creating growth opportunities for a host of businesses in the entire electricity value chain.

 The Centre will now lead by example in propagating the use of solar energy . At a workshop on rooftop solar to be in New Delhi on Tuesday, 50-odd central ministries will pledge to install solar panels on the rooftops of the buildings they occupy as well as on vacant lands they own to produce power. 

 The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has set the highest ever capacity addition target for the clean power sector this fiscal. It has set a new capacity addition target of 16,660 MW – close to four times the capacity target that the government set in the previous year. In the current fiscal, solar segment is expected to achieve its highest-ever annual capacity as the target has been set at 12,000 MW, followed by wind (4,000 MW), bio power (400 MW), small hydro (250 MW) and waste-to-power (10 MW), according to MNRE.

 From providing a lifeline to the ailing state-owned power distribution utilities (discoms) in the form of UDAY (Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana) to ramping up the country’s traditionally neglected transmission network to boosting domestic coal supply, providing subsidised gas to stranded fuel-starved plants and introducing e-auctions for short-term power purchases by discoms, many initiatives have been introduced.

 Adani Green Energy Ltd, the renewable energy arm of the Adani Group, is considering a technical partnership with global major SunEdison Inc for its $2-billion foray into integrated solar manufacturing.

 The 2015 global renewable energy development had a strong Indian flavour to it, with India being ranked among the top five nations in new investments, and in the top four as regards creating jobs in the green energy sector. Emerging markets broke the record in 2015 by committing larger investments than developed nations. China led with more than double the investment of the next largest investor, the US, followed by Japan, the UK, and India, according to a report by the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (Ren21). While China, the US, Japan and the UK maintained their positions relative to 2014, India moved up to displace Germany, which saw a sharp drop in investment

 The way is now clear for Adani’s Carmichael Mine project even as it has obtained all environmental clearances and other necessary approvals, according to Harinder Sidhu, Australian High Commissioner to India.  The Adani investment proposal has now got the environmental approvals. It has everything it needs now. The way is now clear for Adani,” Sidhu said during an event by ICRIER on Wednesday.

 India won't need any new power plants for the next three years as it is flush with generation capacity, according to a government assessment. But, ironically, more than a third of the country's population still lives without power. 

 Government has decided against dragging the US to the WTO for alleged violation of the world trade body's norms on renewable energy as it prefers a bilateral solution , Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal said today. 

 2015 saw a record addition of 147 gig watts (GW) of renewable power worldwide and investment of around $286 billion, a report released Wednesday said, lauding the achievement which came at a time when fossil fuel prices were at historic lows.

 The best thing to have happened in the whole process is the emergence of a 'Team India' spirit in the working of the government. The entire ecosystem works as one cohesive unit. People don't do ministry inter se, governments inter se or departments inter se. There is a lot of informal consultation, discussion and decision making, which has sped things up massively. Two years later, retrospectively, I believe the PM was a visionary to have realised the close interplay between these three ministries. For many years, these ministries could not perform to their true capabilities because each of them was running in a different direction. Now, when they are running together, in the same direction, you can witness the change in the country's power sector.

 Power sector employees have threatened to go on a day-long strike if the government tables the electricity bill in the Parliament without a discussion with them. 

 Country’s power deficit may rise to 5.6% by fiscal 2021-22, from 2.6% of peak demand in the last fiscal, on demand overtaking supply, a study said on Monday

 More than three months after the tariff policy amendments were unveiled by the government, the power sector is waking up to an obscure provision that has the potential to attract over Rs.30,000-crore investment into sewage water treatment plants around thermal generating stations.

 The government has constituted a committee to look into the sharp rise in non-performing assets of state-run power sector financiers , Power Finance Corporation ( PFC ) and Rural Electrification Corporation ( REC ), over the last financial year.

 After a long lull, there are now takers for the franchisee model in power distribution business. The debt-ridden Rajasthan government will hand over the distribution business in two cities in the state — Kota and Bharatpur — to CESC, owned by the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, shortly. CESC, which won the bids floated by the debt-ridden state electricity board (SEB), will have to make a mandatory investment of Rs 1,525 crore and Rs 477 crore for Kota and Bharatpur, respectively, over 15 years

 India ranks fifth in the world in renewable energy (RE) job creation, with 416,000 employed in the sector during 2015. In the world, 8.1 million persons are employed in the clean energy space. China tops the list with 3.5 million, followed by Brazil with 918,000.

 Solar energy company Rays Power Infra is eyeing the emerging opportunity for rooftop solar power solutions while promoting the new leased approach to solar power projects.

 Price discovery for power through the recent e-auction mechanism has been lower than bilateral power prices, thus pushing down reference prices for short-term power, said India Ratings and Research ( Ind-Ra).

 The global renewable energy sector employed more than 8.1 million people last year, a 5 per cent increase that bucked an overall downwards market trend, a green energy organisation said Wednesday.

 Irked by unscheduled power cuts in your area? Soon, you will be able to track power cuts, demand-supply shortfalls and other glitches through a mobile application and a web portal. You will also get SMS and flash message alerts about these.

 The Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers' Association (IEEMA), which is the representative body for the sector welcomed the new domestic procurement norm issued by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

 Coal India today said auction of coal linkages would be conducted for the sponge iron sector initially and the bid schedule will be released tomorrow.

 To ensure that an environmental impact study for the 5,600 megawatt India-Nepal Pancheshwar multi-purpose project is not delayed, an expert panel of the environment ministry has cleared the terms of reference for the project. The panel, however, called for setting up a joint mechanism for assessing the environmental impact of the project. The Pancheshwar multipurpose project is envisaged to be built on the river Mahakali, which divides the far western development region of Nepal from Uttarakhand in India.

 PowerGrid Corp may soon lose ownership of the country's electricity transmission network as the power ministry has approached Cabinet with a proposal aimed at attracting private investment in the transmission space. As per the plan, the state-run company would continue to develop projects, but would not own them.

 A total number of 7,874 villages out of those without power have been electrified till last week with an addition of 108 to the network, the Power Ministry said today. 

 Kerala has written to the Centre to restrict power only from that region for short-term procurement through e-auction for the state because of lack of transmission network in south India , a person close to the development told ET.

 In what could be seen as the twin impact of record-breaking temperatures this summer and a possible revival of industrial growth, the electricity generation for April recorded the highest growth in nearly 22 months.

 Power regulators have launched an internal study to look into various options of designing ‘progressivity’ in tariffs. The trigger is the mismatch between the average tariff and cost of supply, barriers put up by states in providing open access, and high subsidy and cross subsidy.

 As the sun goes down, scores of hamlets and tribal habitats, each with up to a hundred people, in the forest tracts of Telangana face total darkness.
The only light available is from the chullha (earthen stove) and a few battery or solar-powered lights. It is difficult to provide grid-power in these regions, which are located in dense forest tracts.

 The Andhra Pradesh Government has formulated a five point strategy to make it “Energy theft-free State” while bringing down the losses to single digit.

 The government will launch a campaign to make it compulsory to provide electricity connection to all, the power minister said. Piyush Goyal also said he favoured subsidies to farmers who constituted only a small portion of the national demand.

 Increasing the ambit of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s flagship scheme Ujwal Discoms Assurance Yojana (UDAY), the ministry of power would soon approach the Cabinet to incorporate private power distribution companies (discoms) in it.

 GVK Power & Infrastructure Limited posted a wider net loss of R408 crore on a consolidated basis for the quarter ended March 31, 2016 due to higher expenses and increase in interest costs. The company had posted a net loss of R109 crore during the same period last year.

 Tata Power Renewable Energy Ltd (TPREL), a subsidiary of Tata Power, has won two grid-connected solar photovoltaic projects of 50 MW capacity both at Pavagada Solar Park in Karnataka.

 Government-funded power projects will have to use locally-made equipment and material procured through domestic competitive bidding, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has said. The move might trigger litigations from foreign players on grounds of bias towards domestic players, some experts said.

 The International Solar Alliance , led by France and India, is bringing together investors and financers in high-profile events in New Delhi, Kenya, Peru and Indonesia - countries with high solar potential in three different continents.

 The first e-bidding process through the DEEP Portal for short-term power procurement has resulted in substantive savings for states such as Uttarakhand, Kerala, Bihar and also for private discom Torrent Power.

 In view of the water scarcity being faced by the power plants in the country, the Power Ministry is preparing a national roadmap for setting up water reprocessing facilities, which could marginally increasepower tariff.

 Although India is far from achieving its target of 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable power by 2022, a series of steps taken by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in the past year has set India on the path to a green economy in the next few years.

 State-owned power trading solutions company PTC India LtdBSE 3.14 % today reported 29.6 per cent decline in standalone net profit at Rs 39.69 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2016. 

 State-run Power Grid Corp today operationalised its ultra-high voltage 1200 kV National Test Station (NTS) at Bina in Madhya Pradesh, which will help increase power carrying capacity.

 NTPC has withdrawn its notice for discontinuing power supply to BSES which caters to Delhi .

 In an interview with ET, he also said the government is contemplating a mega fund for the power sector, besides giving boost to hydro and wind projects. Edited excerpts:

 Indigenisation has worked well in the case of the auto sector. It makes eminent sense in the case of solar power as well

 In what would enable power companies to scale up capacity utilisation and cut fuel costs, public-sector Coal India has been told to provide the full contracted quantity of coal to them under the fuel supply agreements (FSAs) signed in 2011. Power and coal minister Piyush Goyal told FE, “It came to my notice a few days ago that the committed quantity (of coal) was not being provided (by CIL). 

 Central transmission utility Power Grid Corporation plans to float an infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) — a first in the power sector — to unlock value from its operational transmission assets and free up long-term capital for further investments, government officials privy to the development said.

 Coal India plans to sell 120 million tonnes coal this year to power and nonpower entities that do not have fuel supply commitment, buoyed by the excellent response to its forward e-auction in April.

 The development of ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) is set to get a fresh push, with the government directing the Power Finance Corporation to include such projects in the companies' performance parameters, a senior power ministry official told ET.

 The Competition Appellate Tribunal has set aside a2013 order of Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposing a fine of Rs 1,773 crore on state-run coal monopoly Coal IndiaLtd.

 With Delhiites reeling under scorching heat, power demand today soared to 5,442 megawatts in the national capital.

 Of the Rs 1.11 lakh crore of bonds issued by the states and their power distribution utilities as part of debt restructuring, close to 75 per cent has been picked by banks, followed by the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). Private sector entities like mutual funds and banks have picked up eight per cent of the bonds amounting to Rs 9,030 crore.

 World’s largest single rooftop solar power plant of 11.5 Mw capacity was inaugurated in Beas near Amritsar in Punjab on Tuesday. Spread at a single rooftop stretch of 42 acre at Dera Baba Jaimal, the project was synchronised earlier this year.

 The fate of almost 1,000 megawatt of solar power capacity in India’s solar programme hangs in balance even after a month and a half since US-based SunEdison declared bankruptcy

 About 6,000 MW of additional power is expected to be added to the Karnataka grid, of which 4,800 to 5,200 MW is expected to be available by 2018.

 GMR Rajahmundry Energy Ltd has announced its Strategic Debt Restructure with lenders taking 55 per cent of the equity as per the RBI norms.

 With the investment pipeline drying up in conventional power projects, more than half of PTC India Financial Services' lending has moved towards renewable energy. The company is also seeking to diversify its portfolio and fund port connectivity and hybrid annuity road projects. PFS' main focus now is on solar power.

 PTC India Financial Services (PFS) has reported an over threefold increase in net profit at Rs 49.03 crore in January-March quarter this year as against Rs 15.8 crore a year ago.

 The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has issued fresh draft guidelines for onshore wind power projects, specifying how sites for wind farms should be chosen, the standards wind turbines should conform to and how they should be installed, the average annual plant load factor they need to achieve, and more. 

 Steve Bolze, president and chief executive officer of GE Power, believes digitization will be the biggest disrupter for the power industry in the next 10-20 years. In India to address the conference on the Future of Electricity organized by Mint and General Electric Co. last week, Bolze said India has become a real microcosm for everything going on in the global power sector. Edited excerpts from an interview:

 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cautioned banks from lending more to power distribution companies, or discoms. In a recent letter to select state-owned banks, the regulator has advised them to "exercise caution" in giving new loans to these utilities, reminding them that "any additional exposure to discoms would result in ever-greening" and "invite supervisory measure."

 Hit hard by the retrospective tax, Cairn Energy plc of UK has offered to pay 15 per cent of the Rs 10,247 crore principal amount in return for government lifting freeze on the 9.8 per cent shares it holds in its erstwhile subsidiary, Cairn India.

 which has envisioned a plan to generate 1000 MW of solar energy by 2020, claims to be on track to become the largest harvester of rooftop solar plants, and plans to meet 10% of its total energy requirements through renewable energy by 2020.

 India will file 16 cases against the US at the World Trade Organization (WTO), as certain US programmes in the renewable energy sector are “inconsistent” with WTO norms, according to a written reply by commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament.

 The Rajasthan government recently invited bids for power distribution in Kota and Bharatpur for the next 20 years. Under the terms of the agreement, the distributors will be allowed to use the existing infrastructure and will collect the state-determined tariff from consumers.

 Wind energy producers in India are stepping up efforts to provide buyers with a way to measure the quantity of power received in real time in an attempt to make the renewable source of energy more attractive and help utilities prepare despatch schedules.

 A group of foreign banks to which Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) owes $550 million has appointed Singapore-based Avista Advisory to evaluate a recast of the loans as suggested by the company, senior bankers told FE. They added JSPL’s proposal to restructure the debt, submitted to banks in April, included a revised pricing and an extended tenure. The promoters have indicated to lenders they will provide additional security in the form of shares in some overseas arms.

 Gamesa India, the Spanish wind turbine major’s Indian arm, is investing Rs 300 crore in a new integrated manufacturing facility near Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. The new facility, which is likely to start its production in August this year, will initially manufacture blades for the wind turbines.

 Karnataka is planning to modify its solar power policy to achieve the 6,000 MW target set by Centre before 2020.

 The government will adopt new technologies to make coal-based power generation cleaner and design new financing schemes with private companies to fund research on green energy technologies to address a major surge in power demand expected over the next decade, power minister Piyush Goyal said.

 Power utilities BSES Yamuna Power Ltd and BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd, which cater to about 3.5 million residential, institutional and business consumers in the capital, are exploring ways to resolve a Rs.1,300 crore payment crisis with state-owned power producer NTPC Ltd by 16 May, to avert a major power supply disruption.

 Essar Power Ltd, part of the debt-laden infrastructure conglomerate Essar Group, says it will make a net profit in fiscal 2017 after four years of losses and is looking at becoming a zero-debt company in the next three years.

A day after NTPC issued notices to Reliance Infra-run BSES discoms in Delhi regarding power cuts starting next week due to unpaid bills, the state transmission utility has directed the company to keep its regulation of power supply notice in abeyance in view of ‘imminent threat’ to the grid.

Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for New & Renewable Energy, Power and Coal, is confident that India is on a “strong footing” as it defends its solar programme at the World Trade Organization.

One sector that has got a lot of attention with the coming of the NDA government is renewable energy (RE). Piyush Goyal, minister of state for coal, power and renewable energy, said a year ago that India would invite $2 billion worth of investment in green energy. Back-of-the-envelope calculations show that it has actually happened, especially in solar and wind energy.

The record coal production last fiscal allowed public-sector behemoth Coal India to augment sales via the lucrative electronic auction route to firms with captive power plants and power generators. The rise in e-auction sales  boosted the company’s annual sales by Rs 2,500 crore.

To ensure that the ambitious rural electrification programme does not suffer any set-backs due to financial constraints of the local distribution utilities, the Power Ministry proposes to fund States with a soft loan for providing connections to the economically weaker but Above Poverty Line families.

The Centre’s Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana, a scheme for the financial rejuvenation of distribution companies, does not envisage doing away with state’s power subsidies, the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power and Coal, Piyush Goyal, has said.

India plans to shut aging coal-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 37 gigawatts to cut emissions and reduce the use of fuel and water.

 Sajjan Jindal's JSW Energy will acquire a 1,000 mw power plant in Chhattisgarh from Jindal Steel & Power, controlled by younger brother Naveen. There had been speculation last week that the deal may have run into hurdles after a planned press conference was cancelled.

 Outstanding dues of state utilities payable to central generating power stations have increased 16% in the last one year, touching Rs 22,200 crore. 

 Isn't it odd that the world's largest renewable energy developer has joined the long list of fossil fuel producers who have all recently gone belly up as crude collapsed to historic lows? 

 Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power has won an in-principle approval of the Bangladesh government for the first phase of the 3,000 megawatt LNG-based power plant. 

 In what could worsen Delhi’s scorching summer, state-run NTPC has issued notices to Reliance Infra-run power distribution companies, saying that power supply to them would be regulated from May 11 if the firms do not clear Rs 1,300 crore of combined dues.

 Rising temperature and high power demand across the country has failed to prop up the power trading market with electricity rates in the spot market on exchanges staying at a low of Rs 2.91 per unit in April.

 The government hopes to reduce the coal import bill by Rs 40,000 crore in FY17 on the expectation that coal prices would remain low and domestic production would maintain its robust growth momentum during the year.

 Coal India will set up 15 washeries across the country by October 2017 following which coal with more than 34 per cent ash content will be washed and then supplied to consumers.

Power trading firm PTC India Ltd has emerged as the most successful bidder in the ‘Discovery of Efficient Electricity Price (DEEP)’ e-bidding for short-term power procurement by electricity distribution utilities held last week.

India's latest auction of solar power projects continued to attract bids of less than Rs 5 per unit. ReNew Power was the lowest bidder for NTPC's solar-power projects in Telangana, winning 100 MW with an offer of Rs 4.66 per unit.

The government raised Rs 8,152 crore in 2015-16 by selling bonus debentures of NTPC to EPFO, Parliament was informed today.

Ratings agency CRISIL has downgraded its ratings on bank loan facilities and bonds issued by Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (AP TRANSCO) to default.

After registering 8.5 per cent growth in FY16 in coal output, CIL’s production has slipped in the first month of FY17, raising fears that sluggish demand will force the world’s biggest miner to cut back on output and it may push back the target of doubling its output to 1 billion tonnes beyond 2019-20. Coal India (CIL) produced 40.09 million tonnes (mt) of coal in April, a decline of 3.4 per cent from the targetted 44.48 mt. The coal offtake during the month also fell by 2.5 per cent to 42.45 mt against the target of 51.46 mt.

Coal India Ltd, the world’s biggest miner, saw production and shipments of the fuel fall year-on-year for the first time in 15 months as sluggish demand caused stockpiles to swell.

Power trading firm PTC India Ltd has emerged as the most successful bidder in the ‘Discovery of Efficient Electricity Price (DEEP)’ e-bidding for short-term power procurement by electricity distribution utilities held last week.

Alstom T & D India's standalone net profit fell by 44 per cent year-on-year to Rs 29.87 crore in the quarter ended on March 31, 2016.

In the newly-launched initiative of the ministry of power which mandates e-bidding for short-term power, PTC India Ltd emerged as the successful bidder to supply power to Uttarakhand and Kerala during peak summer months.

PTC India has bagged the largest number of power supply orders at competitive rates to Uttarakhand and Kerala state utilities at a recently concluded short term power procurement auction.

The Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), set up primarily to facilitate the growth of solar power, is going ahead with plans to become a renewable energy developer itself. After having set up a solar project in Rajasthan, it will soon embark on two projects: a 300-MW hybrid project, comprising both solar and wind energy in Andhra Pradesh, and floating solar plants across Kerala (10 MW), Andhra Pradesh (10 MW) and Lakshadweep Islands (5MW).

Burning more coal in Indian thermal power plants can have an adverse impact on rainfall locally. It could increase possibility of drought and the effects may travel across borders to the northern hemisphere, a new MIT study has indicated. "If this is indeed a fact, Asian thermal power generators, especially in India and China, will be under pressure to cut down thermal power generation and abandon new capacity addition plans," a senior analyst said.

Renewable energy player, Suzlon Group, recorded a 103% growth in installations of wind energy projects in FY16 and won back lost market share.

Coal India may spearhead the disinvestment programme in the next financial year by buying back government’s 5 per cent shares in the company. This would net close to Rs 10,000 crore to the exchequer. Sources in the government told Financial Chronicle that the buyback plan, approved by the finance ministry, has already secured the approval of the Coal India (CIL) board and would be implemented at a suitable time early next fiscal. Financial Chronicle first reported the proposed share buyback by CIL in January.

A high level committee appointed by the Union Power Ministry for effective integration of renewable energy (RE) with grid has made a slew of recommendations including strengthening transmission system, robust data telemetry and communication systems, adherence to grid standards and regulations by RE generators and load forecasting by distribution companies, state, regional and national load despatch centres.

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), which was battling with 700 cases dating back to 2012-13, is likely to clear the backlog by October this year.

Power sector may import 48 million tonnes of coal in the ongoing fiscal for plants which need coal from overseas market.