Staff Reporter

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.

Sahara India Power and Korea East-West Power have entered into a pact for developing power plants, with a total capacity of 6,000 MW.

National Thermal Power Corp plans to construct a Rs100bn or $2.17 billion thermal power plant in Maharashtra.

Suzlon Energy has been tapped by Indian Oil to build, operate and maintain a 48.3MW wind facility in Andhra Pradesh.

The two companies are teaming up to help utilities more effectively manage peak electricity demand, identify opportunities for power savings and cut down on energy usage.

The Fixed Series Compensation system delivers higher efficiency by increasing the capacity of the existing power line infrastructure.

Tohoku Electric restarted the operation of its No. 2 power generator at its thermal plant in the city of Akita after replacing a cracked pipe connecting the boiler to the turbine.

JBIC may extend a 100 billion yen to Chubu Electric Power Co. to help it procure fuel for thermal power generation.

Experts are complaining that Mongolia was selling the coal too cheaply to China during the Tavantolgoi forum held at the Civil Hall at the Presidential Office in Ulaanbaatar. At $US 70 per ton, they say Mongolia’s profit is only USD 10 per ton.

The website caries here, an account of 47 thermal power plants (TPPs) that have exhibited more than 100 million units (MU) worth of shortfall vis-a-vis their targets during April - July, 2011.Various issues, such as low system demand, miscellaneous forced shortages, etc. have contributed to a cumulative shortfall of 11,970.8 million units (MU) in targeted power generation for 47 stations, worth combined capacity of 37,359.25 MW.   NTPC Limited was faced with low system demand at its 830 MW Dadri combined cycle power plant (CCPP), and 663 MW Auraiya CCPP; while the 2340 MW Kahalgaon TPS suffered from fuel shortages, reflected in maximum generation losses worth 1068 MU. Further, Talcher STPS, Udupi TPP, Peguthan CCPP and Jalipa Kupurdi TPS  recorded shortfalls of 567.94 MU, 465.95 MU, 450.86 MU and 390.03 MU respectively, among others.

India surpassed its energy generation target for July by 3,065 million units, generating 74,104 million MU during the month. The country also registered an impressive double digit growth rate of 12.49% over the electricity generated from the same period last year.

Semirara Mining will receive a PHP14bn ($329.27m) loan to finance the construction of two generating units next to its coal plant in Batangas in the Philippines. The project involves the construction of two coal-fired units of 150MW each, next to the 600MW coal-fired power plant. The project will be implemented by Semirara Mining's new subsidiary Southwest Luzon Power Generation. The syndicated term debt facility was arranged by BDO Capital and Investment, reports abs-cbnnews.com.