Staff Reporter

The tower erection work of the associated transmission system (ATS) for unit-I and II of the Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP), which has seen incessant delays up till now, is now considerably much behind schedule, as per a report by the power ministry. As of June 2011, no more than 510 towers have been erected out of a total of 856 locations for the 400 kV D/C Mundra - Limbdi (Triple Snowbird) line, with 417 CKM of transmission lines yet to be laid out. Further, right of way (RoW) issues and forestry clearance are critical for laying out the remaining 108 CKM of the 764 CKM long Mundra-Bachau-Ranchodpura line. Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation Limited (GETCO), the agency implementing the ATS for the project, needs to expedite balance pile works and work in the creek area for contingency plan of the ATS while Powergrid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) has completed the connection of the Bachchau- Ranchodpura line with Limdi till Ranchodpura section. Pertinently, work is in progress for Bachchau bay extension and Limbdi bays extension. Also, progress is being made on the second transformer at Ranchodpura substation of 2 X 315 MVA. Mundra UMPP, with 2 units of 800 MW capacity each, is a Tata power project located in Gujarat. The project entails an investment of Rs 17,000 crore and is being funded through a debt-equity ratio of 75:25. The executing agencies for ATS are GETCO and PGCIL.

The total electricity production of various cascade hydropower stations in the Yellow River Basin exceeded 20TWh this year.

The first 640MW ultra-super critical unit of CPI Guixi Power Plant passed the 168-hour full-load test running.

The 72MW CPI Dongping Hydropower Project in Hunan Province successfully received the issuance of emission reductions on 28 July 2011.

Doosan Heavy Industries has delivered a 340t nuclear reactor vessel to be installed at the Sanmen nuclear power plant in Zhejiang, China.

Now Perkins looks at over 130,000 engines being manufactured by 2015.

India needs US$ 253 billion as the fund requirement for the power sector during the forthcoming 12th five year plan, from 2012 to 2017.

China has surpassed the US as the world's largest consumer of energy in 2010, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy released yesterday. China's share of global energy is now 20.3% while it was 19% for the US. India's share was a meagre 4.4% China's share of global coal consumption was a whopping 48.2% in relation to 14.8% only for the US and 7.8% for India. The following picture emerges when a comparison is made between India with China : At the end of 2010, proved reserves of oil were at 2 billion tonnes for China and 1.2 billion tonnes  for India. Despite being a large consumer, China's share of reserves of the global total was a meagre 1.1%, whereas India's share was 0.7%. The R/P ratio was 9.9 for China and a much more favourable 30 for India. Clearly, China is eating up its reserves at a much faster pace than India. China's crude production was 4,071 thousand barrels per day in 2010, an increase of 7.1% over 2009 in comparison to 826 thousand barrels for India, an annual increase of 9.8%. China's consumption of oil was 9,057 thousand barrels in 2010 in comparison to India's 3,319 thousand barrels. China's refining capacity is also big, at 10121 thousand barrels per day in comparison to India's 3703 thousand barrels. China imported 234.6 million tonnes of crude oil in 2010 in relation to India's 162 million tonnes. China imported 59.9 million tonnes of petroleum products in comparison to India's 16.5 MMT. India's export of petroleum products was much larger at 57.2 MMT in relation to 29.4 MMT by China. China's gas reserves at the end of 2010 were at 99.2 trillion cubic feet (TCF) in relation to India's 51.2 TCF. China's R/P ratio for gas was 24.7 in relation to India's 29. China's gas production was 96.8 BCM in 2010, while India's was 50.9 BCM. China's gas consumption was a 100 BCM and India's was 61.9 BCM. China's proved reserves of coal was a massive 1,14,500 MMT, making up 11% of the world's reserves, while India's reserves were at 60,600 TMT, approximating 7% of global reserves. The R/P ratio is 35 for China and 106 for India. China's production of coal was a whopping 1,800 MMT, whereas India's output was just 216 MMT. China's coal consumption was 1,713 MMT while India's was 277.6 TMT. China's hydel production was 161.1 million tonnes of oil equivalent (MTOE) as against India's 25,2 MTOE. India's renewal energy output was just 5.0 MTPE in relation to China's 12.1 MTOE. China's biofuel output was 1,399 MTOE, whereas India's was 151 MTOE. Overall, China's primary energy consumption in 2010 was 2432 MTOE against India's 524 MTOE.  

Reliance Industries Limited's 5 MW solar power plant at Khimsar, Rajasthan recorded the highest net capacity utilization factor at 18.8% among six grid connected solar plants.

The National Development and Reform Commission set new feed-in tariffs for both open and non-competitive PV project tenders above those previously accepted in the last bidding process.

A 1MW PV power plant, using 4,400 230 Watts crystalline silicon modules has been installed and commissioned by Tata BP Solar India.

As many as 20 power generating companies have put in their initial bids for executing the 4,000-Mw ultra mega power project in Orissa.

ABB Ltd has won orders worth Rs 16.1 crore to supply turnkey power and automation solutions for three photovoltaic solar power plants with a combined capacity of 11 Mw in India.

India's state-run NHPC would invest around Rs 15,000 crore for developing two hydropower projects in the neighbouring country Myanmar.

A Norwegian court ruled in favour of China Sunergyvin its vwafer supply deal dispute with REC Wafer. REC Wafer is said to appeal the decision made by the Norwegian Court of Appeal.

Chinese wind turbine manufacturers have experienced explosive growth in recent years. Sinovel, which installed its first wind turbine in 2006, was ranked as the world’s second largest wind turbine manufacturer in 2010 – ahead of companies like GE, Gamesa, and Siemens. In 2010, four of the top ten original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) were Chinese.