Staff Reporter

ABB has booked an order worth more than Rs. 4000 crores from Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd., to deliver UHVDC transmission system.

NTPC has signed a PPA with Madhya Pradesh Power Trading Company for supplying electricity from a 50MW solar plant, based in Rajgarh. It is expected to be commissioned by 2013.

India’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission is bound to achieve 20 GW until 2022. India has some KW of installed solar power until the kick start of the Mission in 2010. India is one of the two countries in the world with more than one billion and is also home to many persons without electricity. But we are not talking about off-grid applications, we are talking about on-grid and with Fit. India learnt the lesson of Fit and RPS driven PPA and created their own scheme: RPO – Renewable Purchase Obligation – with a reverse bidding to determine the Fit.

In July 2011 Asian Power posted an article I wrote on the new paradigm for utility information security where you should assume your information systems can be breached and react accordingly. In this article I’d like to extend some added ideas for energy and utility executives to consider when trying to secure their information systems.

China boosted its offshore wind power by launching its largest intertidal wind farm at the end of 2011.

Reliance Power is in talks with Shell to jointly set up a LNG terminal to secure supplies for its gas-fired power plant.

Indonesia still has a lot of hard work to do to exploit its full potential in renewable energy. And wean itself from a powerful dependence on coal.

Tata Power Ltd, India’s largest integrated power utility, has confirmed its buy out of the 51% stake owned by BP Alternative Energy Holding in their joint company, Tata BP Solar.

Will all the efforts to reduce dependence on thermal energy sources bear fruit or go in vain?

The China Photovoltaic Industry Alliance (CPIA) is finalizing a complaint alleging that U.S. manufacturers are dumping polysilicon at below cost prices in China. The petition will ask the ministry of commerce to open a dumping and subsidy investigation into the sales of U.S. polysilicon in China. The move is a response to the U.S. anti-dumping investigation into the export practices of Chinese solar cell and module manufacturers. The CPIA includes major Chinese solar players like GCL-Poly, Suntech, LDK Solar, Yingli, and Trina. It should be noted, however, that Suntech said it is not involved in the action. In addition to the anti-dumping complaint, the CPIA will be preparing a petition urging the Ministry to look into subsidies allegedly received by U.S. manufacturers.

China intends to triple the amount of electricity generated from solar energy despite its pricey cost.

China’s second largest solar panel maker offered $31.3m to buy the German company.

Viet Nam should join the growing trend of constructing environmentally-friendly buildings as an important step towards sustainable development, experts said a conference on Thursday, Nov 17. The second Green Conference, jointly organised by Kohler Viet Nam and HCM City Association of Architects, attracted more than 200 delegates representing property developers, architects, and design consultancy firms. 338614d88_giobaclieu.jpg Nguyen Truong Luu, deputy chairman of the HCM City Association of Architects said the green factor was indispensable, so property developers need to have a thorough understanding of the "green" concept and apply its standards in their construction projects. A green building will conserve resources, including energy, land, water and construction materials, limit pollution, protect the environment, help safeguard the health of community, said Prof. Nguyen Huu Dung of the Viet Nam Institute of Urban and Industry Environment. Participants stressed the need to pay special attention to installing wastewater treatment systems, minimising waste discharge and ensuring the quality of internal and external environments by reducing pollution to the maximum. Dung noted that environmental degradation as a result of wastewater discharge had reached alarming proportions at the moment, particularly in industrial parks, urban areas and buildings in HCM City and Ha Noi. There is an evident shortage of onsite wastewater treatment plants in many residential compounds, new townships, building towers and commercial complexes, he said. These places discharge untreated wastewater directly into the environment, he said. ‘Get serious' Dung informed the seminar of updated information about current water treatment regulations including Decision No 88 adjusting environmental fees for domestic wastewater generation and discharge in HCM City. He said the fees should be steep enough to deter violations. Joseph Azzarello, senior staff engineer at Kohler Co. a US-based firm that makes sanitary fittings, electric generators and small engines, said Viet Nam was a dynamic market with a strong growth rate that should seriously target building green buildings. He said Vietnamese builders and investors should seek the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, a leading-edge system devised by the US Green Building Council. The LEED standard consists of a suite of rating systems for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. Green buildings have not only helped protect environment, but also brought an increase in return of investment for investors, Azzarello said. Nguyen Van Tat, deputy chairman of Viet Nam Association of Architects, said developers were concerned that applying sustainable technology in their projects would require more investment, raising it to two or three times the normal capital outlay. However, they should think of the advantages environmentally-friendly buildings confer, especially for large-scale projects, he said.

Mahagenco wants to convert loss-incurring thermal power stations/units into profit-making ones.  

From the commissioning schedule of ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) provided by the power ministry, it seems that the the projects are well on track with respect to their completion timelines. For instance, CEA has revised the timelines for all five units of the 4,000 MW Mundra UMPP so that the projects may achieve commissioning much earlier than was originally envisaged in the PPA schedule. For the 800 MW unit 1, CEA has pushed the commissioning date forward by nearly five months to February, 2012 as against the scheduled commissioning date of August, 2012. The CEA has similarly revised the commissioning dates for the remaining four units. The new dates for the four units are now May, 2012 (unit-II), September, 2012 (unit-III), November, 2012 (unit-IV), and February, 2013 (unit-V) as against the original schedule where the the units were expected to go on steam form February, 2013, August, 2013, February, 2014 and August, 2013 respectively. The Mundra UMPP has been set up by Coastal Gujarat Power Limited (CGPL), a wholly owned subsidiary of TPIL, which was incorporated as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to implement the project. The five units of 800 MW each generate a total of 4000 MW power using supercritical technology.

Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) has made it easy for customers to apply for electricity supply with the launch of its on-line service called e-Application. Aimed at improving efficiency, the e-Application can also be used to help customers monitor the status of their applications and verify documents. "It will quickly allow customers to decide on any follow-up action, if necessary, to speed up the application process," TNB said in a statement. TNB chief operating officer and chief executive Datuk Azman Mohd was quoted as saying that the system would assist developers in mananging their request for electricity supply and this would help TNB in planning for the future. E-Application will also facilitate the sharing of information with registered contractors with valid licences from the data base of the Energy Commission. Customers can also select contractors via the online service hence eliminating the risk of engaging unauthorised contractors. The e-application system will be fully implemented by housing developers beginning January 1.