Staff Reporter

The electricity crisis has prompted the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association to install their own power plants with a total capacity of 1,000 MW.

Neyveli Lignite Corporation is pursuing expeditious allocation of long term coal linkage worth 0.33 million tonnes of 'E' or 'F' grade coal.

India's Ministry of Power has rejected the standard bidding procedure suggested by the Planning Commission (PC) for public-private partnership in transmission projects.

TEPCO announced plans to increase the power supply to Tohoku Electric Power to more than 3,000MW this month.

Tohoku Electric Power will establish a new solar power generation business in a joint venture with Toyota Motar Corp and the state of Miyagi.

China Huadian have formed a joint venture company with Generala Electric to develop distributed energy combined heat and power projects in China.

The question is, can the country live without nuclear power?

The project will incorporate the first large-scale industrial use of solar thermal technology to generate electricity in the country.

India's private sector is expected to contribute nearly 36 percent of power sector capacity expansion in the 11th Five Year Plan, which ends 2012. It is also expected to provide over 50 percent in the next plan period. 'The private sector would contribute to nearly 36 percent of the capacity addition in the 11th Plan and over 50 percent of the capacity addition proposed for the 12th Plan. The private sector will bring in nearly 19,000 MW during the current plan,' said Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde. Shinde further said the power generation equipment capacity at the state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited will be increased to 20,000 MW in 2012 from 10,000 MW in 2007. 'Several new joint venture companies have been formed to manufacture supercritical boilers and turbine-generators for thermal power plants,' Shinde said. Shinde said the government has approved bulk tendering for 11 units of 660 MW power each. Another bulk tender for nine units of 800 MW each has also been approved. The full story is available at Yahoo News.

South Korea clinched key agreements with Kazakhstan Thursday on two US$4 billion projects to build a thermal power plant and a petrochemical complex in the Central Asian nation, the latest fruit of President Lee Myung-bak's trip to Central Asia.    After summit talks between Lee and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the two sides signed an "inter-government agreement" guaranteeing South Korea's 70-percent stake in a $4 billion project to build a coal-fired power plant in the southern city of Balkhash.    Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) and Samsung C&T currently hold a 35-percent stake each in the project to build a 1,320-megawatt plant that is expected to generate about 7 percent of Kazakhstan's electricity needs.    Officials said that the intergovernmental guarantee is a must to make sure that the terms of the contract will remain effective regardless of changes to the law in Kazakhstan and to ensure that the Kazakh government will buy electricity from the plant.    In addition, South Korea's LG Chem and Kazakhstan Petrochemical Industries (KPI) also signed a contract to establish a joint venture to push for a $4 billion project to build a petrochemical complex in Atyrau on the northern banks of the Caspian Sea.    The envisioned complex will use gas from the nearby Tengiz oil field to produce about 800,000 tons of polyethylene annually. Construction is expected to be completed by 2016, with commercial production to begin the following year, officials said.    The two agreements were the largest-ever since South Korea and Kazakhstan forged relations in 1992, and the latest achievement of Lee's three-nation Central Asian tour that already took him to Mongolia and Uzbekistan.    In Uzbekistan, a $4 billion deal was signed to develop a massive gas field and build a chemical plant. Lee arrived in Astana on Wednesday.   During Thursday's summit talks, Lee and Nazarbayev agreed that the success of the Balkhash power plant and the Atyrau petrochemical complex will serve as a model for further expanding cooperation between the two countries and pledged to cooperate closely on them, officials said.    The two leaders also expressed satisfaction that their countries have steadily expanded cooperation and discussed ways to strengthen substantive cooperation in the fields of trade, investment, energy, resources, environment, health care, medicine, IT and agriculture, officials said.    The two sides also signed about 20 economic cooperation agreements.    Officials said that Lee has developed a close friendship with Nazarbayev as he has held summit talks with the Kazakh leader every year since taking office in 2008. This year's visit would further strengthen their personal bond, officials said.    Nazarbayev praised South Korea for playing key roles in the international community, such as last year's hosting of the G20 summit and winning the right to host the 2018 Winter Olympics in the alpine city of PyeongChang.    Lee also spoke highly of Kazakhstan's growing international status as shown in its hosting of last year's summit of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and this year's Winter Asian Games, officials said.    Lee also expressed gratitude to Nazarbayev for his decision to participate in next year's Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, and the Kazakh leader promised to provide support for a successful staging of the summit, officials said.    In a display of their friendship, Lee and Nazarbayev called off several events scheduled for later in the day and spent time together at a presidential retreat outside Astana after the Kazakh leader made the suggestion, officials said. The full story is available at Yonhap News.

The unit's steam turbine was automatically shut down while generating 400MW of power.

India has approved fund raising worth Rs 60,950 crore by companies through external commercial borrowing or foreign currency convertible bonds for infrastructure projects in the last two financial years.

The government of Bangladesh is looking for loans to fund power projects of a total capacity of 14,773 megawatts by 2015 due to dwindling foreign aid.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited is on track to augment its manufacturing capacity to 20,000 MW per annum by March 2012 with its augmentattion programme.

Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos are planning for significant investment increases in their electricity generation capacity in order to keep pace with the rising demand.

The 12-year INR1.4 billion (US$30.6 million) loan will be utilised in constructing its 15MW plant project in Gujarat, India.