Staff Reporter

With an initial investment of €50 million, AREVA will construct its transmission and distribution technology center for Chinese clients. Located in Shanghai's Caohejing Pujiang High-Tech Park, China, it will be the first Research and Development center of its kind to be built by an international T&D company in China.

Eco-tech Environmental Power Co., Ltd. passed the 2008 environmental credit examination conducted by Dongguan Environmental Protection Bureau, and was graded as Environmental-creditable enterprise.

After acquiring a Bataan plant, San Miguel Corporation expressed interest in buying the Sucat Thermal plant, a dormant plant in Manila.

Satisfactory evaluation results of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant while generating power at 75 percent prompted TEPCO to test it while maximising generation.

Green Core Geothermal Inc. gave the highest bid for the 192.5-megawatt Palinpinon and 112.5-MW Tongonan geothermal power plants with $220-million. The amount also met the reserve price set by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp., according to its spokesperson Conrad Tolentino.

After announcing that they will complete Malaysia's first nuclear plant by 2025, Tenaga Nasional Berhad may push plans forward until 2028.

Unit 1 of Heimifeng Pumped Storage Power Plant passed a 30-day test run, which signaled that this unit is ready for commercial operation.

EGAT is moving up two investment projects worth US$411.5 million a year earlier than scheduled to support the "Strong Thailand" project.

Thailand's RFEC programme has so far received US$163.6 million from the Energy Conservation Promotion Fund and US$158.7 million from commercial banks for 242 energy conservation projects. It is now entering its fourth phase.

Calling it the new source of profit creation, Kepco's main concern is how soon it can complete its smart grid technology.

The 2×600MW expansion project of Yanshanhu Power Plant is right on schedule for its planned 2011 operations.

Meralco begins paying around US$2.059 million worth of payouts next month for about 800,000 incidents where service commitments were not met. Incidents are the number of times that Meralco was unable to meet Guaranteed Service Levels provided under the performance-based rate mechanism. Customers are compensated if the distribution utility is unable to meet performance thresholds in duration and frequency of power interruptions, restoration time and connection time. The said amount is for the first regulatory year of the PBR, which was from July 2007 to June 2008.

Sinohydro Corporation and Electricite Du Laos will construct two hydro-electric power plants and a power transmission line, according to China Daily. The projects have a cumulative worth of about $559 million.

After being chosen by the Cambodian government to facilitate tax payments, Acleda Bank's ATMs will now receive electricity payments in behalf of the Electricité du Cambodge. EDC is a state-owned limited liability company to generate, transmit, and distribute electric power through-out the Kingdom of Cambodia. Acleda Bank Plc. has deployed 62 ATMs and plan to deploy 105 ATMs more before the end of 2009 in response to the requirements and servicing to clients and public including customers of EDC. "ACLEDA Bank has a wide branch network connected by modern telecommunications systems and is well established in the country, especially in Phnom Penh and Kandal province with deploying ATMs to provide services for 24 hours in 7 days per week. Furthermore, the using of commercial banking system to manage the payment transactions of using electric power is designed to enhance the financial accountability of EDC with effectiveness," said H.E Keo Ratanak, Royal Government of Cambodia Delegate in Charge of Managing EDC, on why they selected Acleda Bank to receive payments in its behalf. President and CEO of ACLEDA Bank Plc., Mr. In Channy, said that "ACLEDA Bank Plc. is proud in receiving confidence and being selected by EDC to provide payment services of using electric power through Acleda Bank's ATM after ACLEDA Bank has been selected by the Ministry of Economy and Finance for providing banking services on national revenue and expense transactions in June."

Kepco is planning to incorporate smart grid technology in expanding in the Philippine wind and hydro power plant projects.

Aboitiz Power won a negotiated bid to acquire two barge-mounted, diesel-powered generation plants from PSALM. Each of the plants has a generating capacity of 100 megawatts.