___________

Following are excerpts from a Pragativadi report:

The Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys Ltd (IMFA) has posted its highest-ever turnover of Rs 593.53 crore during 2006-07, registering an increase of 26.67 per cent over the previous year.

… the turnover included export earnings of Rs 317.74 crore, that went up by 48.52 percent. The improved operational performance, coupled with higher product prices, resulted in PBIDT increasing by 45.48 per cent to Rs 140.53 crore.

… the company produced a record 130,563 tonnes of ferro chrome during the year, including the tonnage sourced under a conversion contract with an associate company as it shifted focus away from ferro silicon, the output of which declined by 19.39 percent to 30,796 tonnes.

… financial closure had been achieved for a 30 MW dual-fuel power plant at Choudwar that is expected to be operational in 18 months. This will take total power generation capacity to 138 MW, …

Euitybulls reports on these announcements. Following are some excerpts.

… capital expenditure of Rs 142 crore (+10%) for setting up another cement grinding unit at Kapilas Cement Works, Kapilas Road in Jagatpur Tehsil of Cuttack District of Orissa.

… capital expenditure of Rs 250 crores (+10%) for setting up 2×25 MW Thermal Captive Power Plant and Coal Beneficiation Plant at Rajgangpur Cement Works, District Sundergarh, Orissa.

… capital expenditure of Rs 7.66 crores (+10%) for setting up 1.0 Million Tonnes per annum Hammer Mill at Lanjiberna near Rajgangpur works, Orissa.

 Samaja has the following report on it.

New Indian Express has a report that mentions other places in Orissa where similar projects are being taken up.

Mahishiakada and Jamuganda – two villages in Dhenkanal and Nayagarh districts respectively – never had the experience of electricity.

Drawing supply lines and installing poles would almost have been unthinkable but for a non-conventional strategy. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), which included these remote villages under its Village Energy Security Programme (VESP) has electrified these two habitations of about 200 households.

A 10 kilo watt genset that uses just small wood chips has been able to give the villages – each has one – uninterrupted power for seven to 10 days at one go. The villagers, besides using it for illumination purposes in evening, are able to run water pumps too. Both projects were inaugurated earlier this week.

The VESP projects look beyond mere electrification of remote un-electrified villages for they aim to provide a holistic energy service package to people inhabiting in such pockets, Chief Executive of Orissa Renewable Energy Development Agency (OREDA) Ajit Bhartuar said.

In fact, the two projects which have been taken up on test basis are second and third such projects taken up by MNRE in India, the first being in Madhya Pradesh.

The projects are being implemented by the Village Energy Committee members who have been trained on operational details. The committees are helped either by local NGOs or Divisional Forest Officers. While the Ministry comes up with 90 per cent assistance, balance is contributed by villagers. In cases, local development funds are also accessed.

While the Mahishiakada project has been set up at a cost of Rs 15.96 lakh, the other was established with an estimated Rs 19.56 lakh. In the State, test projects are being implemented in 13 remote villages of Koraput, Nowrangpur, Kandhamal, Ganjam, Nayagarh, Dhenkanal and Cuttack.

Following are some tables from the May 1-15th issue of Pratisruti Plus. (The Sept 2006 Hindu report also lists various power related MOUs.)

Statesman reports on this. Following are some excerpts.

Badamba-based Balaji Sugar is all set to start its sugar refinery unit by November this year with an investment of Rs 40 crore. The company has also planned to set up an ethanol plant with a capacity of 40000 litre.

… he said that the company through a special programme would lend soft loans at six per cent interest through banks to farmers as well as fertilizers and supply seeds at subsidized rates to more than 10,000 sugarcane farmers in all command areas of Jajpur, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur and undivided Cuttack district.

The company has announced a special plan for the farmers named Swarna Varsha in which farmers can get fabulous prizes against the number of sugarcane trucks they supply.

The new refinery will be of 2000 TCD with 100 per cent EOU (export-oriented unit) which will be manufactured from imported raw sugar from Brazil and Malaysia and will be exported to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Besides this, the company is also installing 40,000 litres per day extra neutral alcohol to be used as base product for all the distillery units in Orissa as well as neighbouring states. They are also having the plan to manufacture ethanol keeping in mind the global warming, which is an environment-friendly substitute of petrol, which is 5–10 per cent as per government directives.

On the other hand, the company has decided to set up a 20 MW power plant using crushed cane instead of coal. The factory at Badamba was sold by the state co-operative department with zero liability as well as to select the co-operative staff as per choice and head of the company without any compulsion to recruit them in the management by Balaji Sugar.

Financial Express reports on this. Following are some excerpts.

The ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) has prescribed the terms of reference (ToR) for preparation of the draft environment impact assessment (EIA) report pertaining to five power projects with the total generation capacity of 2,685 mw.

The project list includes Tata Power Company’s (TPC) Jojobera project in Jharkhand (120-mw), MahaGenco’s Bhusawal thermal project in Maharashtra (300-mw), KvK Nilachal’s 600-mw project in Orissa, CESC’s 660-mw project in Purba Medinipur (West Bengal) and Monnet Ispat’s project in Orissa.

Statesman reports on plans for non-conventional electrification of 70 villages in Kalahandi. Following are some excerpts.

After long wait of three years, 70 remote villages of Thuamul Rampur and Madanpur Rampur blocks of Kalahandi will at last get electrification benefit through non-conventional energy sources by coming December. The matter was reviewed here in the district level advisory committee of renewably energy, presided by the district collector Mr Pramod Kumar Patnaik.

It will be implemented by OREDA (Orissa Renewable Energy Development Agency) under the Remote Village Electrification Programme of the ministry of new and renewable energy, govt. of India. The ministry has provided central assistance of about Rs.4.38 crore for this purpose.

The beneficiary families will only have to pay Rs.5 towards membership and Rs. 100 for connection charges. Under this programme 40 villages of Thuamul Rampur block and 30 villages of Madanpur Rampur block will be benefited. Out of the 70 villages, 58 villages will be provided power by connection of individual solar energy system, five villages will be electrified by bio-mass power plant and 7 villages through Solar Power Plants.

Besides this project, proposals for non-conventional Electrification of 380 more remote villages pending for long was mooted. This proposal is pending because it has not yet received clearance from Wesco. … It was decided in the Advisory Committee to set up an Energy Park in the Agriculture Farm of the horticulture department located in Raisinghpur on the outskirts of Bhawanipatna town.

Various equipment generating non-conventional energy will be installed and operated in this farm which will work as a demonstration field for the people to educate them about operation and the benefits of non-conventional energy sources.

Hindustan Times reported that,

the Orissa government is examining a proposal from the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) to set up a 4,000 to 6,000-megawatt capacity nuclear power plant, which could be the largest in the country, which today has a total nuclear power generation capacity of only 4,120 MW.

The project is being proposed in the wake of the US government’s offer of technology under the bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement with India.

“The NPCIL made their initial selection of the site based on satellite images,” Orissa Energy Minister Suryanarayan Patro told Hindustan Times on Monday.

A nine-member committee of NPCIL had visited Bhadrak and Ganjam districts for site selection and had finally selected Pati Sonapur in Chikiti Block of Ganjam,he said “They have asked the Orissa Hydro Power Corporation to drill six deep borewells as part of their investigations,” he said.     

The Economic Times reports on NALCO’s plan about a cement venture and its plans to convert fly-ash to salable product. Following are excerpts from that report.

… (Nalco) has decided to diversify into cement manufacturing and is looking for global joint venture partners to float a medium to large sized cement plant. Nalco’s proposed cement venture is part of its decision to use fly ash generated at its captive power plant at Angul in Orissa and convert it into sale-able products. …

Nalco is primarily looking at the possibility of manufacturing Pozzo-lana Portland Cement (PPC). A byproduct of coal-fired power plants, fly ash can replace a proportion of the clinker used in cement plants. However, the company is also open to any other form of utilisation of fly ash in the JV.

The company is also seeking JV partners for classification and marketing of cementitious applications in the domestic and export markets. Cementitious products have cement-like, cementing, or bonding type properties. As the largest state owned producer of aluminium, Bhubaneswar-based Nalco operates alumina-aluminium complex along with a captive power plant, and has embarked on a major expansion programme to raise metal capacity.

The project also involves enhancing installed captive power generation capacity from 960 mw to 1,200 mw at Angul. Fly ash is commonly used as a high-performance substitute for Portland cement or as clinker for Portland cement production. Cement blended with fly ash is becoming very common. Building material applications range from grouts and masonry products to cellular concrete and roofing tiles.

Nalco has eight power units of 120 mw each, while the expansion project involves setting up two more identical units of 120 mw. These will be commissioned by the year 2008.

Typically, such units generate about 5,000-6,000 tonnes of ash per day, of which fly ash consists of 4,000-4,800 tonnes. A project is un-derway to allow easy loading of fly ash from the plants. By 2009, the quantity of fly ash that can be utilised is expected to touch 4,500 ton-nes per day. At present, this volume is about 900 tonnes.

“Nalco is yet to decide on the size of the cement plant. However, rough estimates show that a one million tonnes cement plant can be put up to utilise three lakh tonnes of fly ash. Nalco’s current fly ash generation per annum is 3.2 lakh tonnes,” a Nalco official said.

Water power magazine reports on a plan by a French company to build hydro electric projects on the Baitarani river. (This is the river where there is flooding now which has cut off the district HQ town of Jajpur from the rest of Orissa.) Following are excerpts from the magazine report.

French energy group Velcan was recently granted two 30-year concessions to develop projects with a combined capacity of 50MW in Orissa state.

Velcan Energy said it planned to develop a pair of 25MW projects on the same river for the ‘Baitarani’ project and although they would be built 5km apart they will be operated as a single scheme.

The company is proceeding with applications for the necessary authorisations and hopes to start construction in the second quarter of 2009 for commissioning and operations by the end of 2011.

The ‘Baitarani’ scheme will consist of two dams – Bhimkund and Tarini. It is planned that the hydro plants should be able to generate up to 200GWh per year, and secure 210,000 Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits per annum. …

Some of the other topics that were discussed in the assembly include the following:

• Insurance for fishermen
• Monthly electricity generation
• Progress on second Infocity
• Foreign demand for handlooms
• Conservation of ancient documents

Following is Samaja’s report on the above.

New Indian Express reports on the energy minister’s statement on this in the assembly. Following are some excerpts.

Energy Minister Surya Narayan Patro … announced in the Assembly the Government’s commitment to provide electricity to all villages and hamlets in the State by the end of Eleventh Five Year Plan.

The State Government would formulate a captive power policy (CPP) for the captive power plants, he said. … the Minister said rural electrification is being carried out by the State Government under three schemes – Minimum Needs Programme (MNP), Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY) and Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutkaran Yojana (RGGVY).

Stating that the Government has submitted the detailed project reports (DPRs) to the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) for 30 districts, the Minister said the DPRs of Angul, Nayagarh, Ganjam, Gajapati and Jajpur districts have been approved. Besides, the DPRs of three more districts – Balasore, Bhadrak and Puri – have received in-principle approval.

The Minister said the Centre has released Rs 92.85 crore in the first phase to the NTPC and NHPC to take up rural electrification work in Angul, Nayagarh and Ganjam districts.

Referring to the Biju Gramjyoti Yojana (BGY) announced by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik recently, the Patro said under the programme hamlets with less than 300 population will be electrified. He said the Centre rejected the State Government’s request to include hamlets with less than 300 population in the RGGVY.

The State Government has set a target to provide Rs 1000 crore for the programme in the Eleventh Five Year Plan and provided Rs 50 crore in the 2007-08 financial year. Besides, the State Government has also made a provision of Rs 120 crore under the Biju KBK Yojana for providing electricity, road and drinking water to villages.

The Minister informed the House that the Government has undertaken electrification of 4,499 villages under the MNP for which the Centre has provided Rs 120 crore so far. He said by May-end, 3,736 villages have been electrified under the programme.

Stating that five special police stations have been set up to check theft of power and related crimes, the Minister said special courts have been opened to try these cases.

Patro announced that police stations and courts would be set up in the rest of the districts during the year.

Following is Samaja’s coverage on this.

Hindu has reported on the energy minister Mr. S. N. Patro’s statement regarding the location identified by the central government for a nuclear plant in Orissa. Following are excerpts.

The Centre has identified a site in Orissa’s Ganjam district for setting up of a 6000 MW nuclear power plant, …

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) has identified Pati Sonapur under Chikiti block where the plant can be established, …

Official sources said if the NPCIL’s proposal of setting up the nuclear power plant materialised, it would be the largest such generation unit in the country.

Though there are 17 nuclear power plants operating in the country, none matches the capacity of the proposed project.

While a total of 4120 mw of power is being generated by all units, the proposed plant alone would produce 6000 mw of power.

Sources said the 17 nuclear power stations are located in six states. While four units each are located in Maharastra and Rajasthan, three are in Karnataka. Two units each are in Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

The minister said the NPCIL has already proposed drilling six borewells to reconfirm suitability for the project.

Economic Times reports  road development related to POSCO’s proposed operations. Following are excerpts from that report.

… the government has decided to develop 600 km of highways, to be called Posco roads, to provide connectivity for the 12 million-tonne capacity steel plant in Orissa. The Rs 4,000-crore highway would be constructed on built-operate-transfer (BOT) model and would be completed by 2010. 

The projects are part of phase-III of the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP). The Posco package consists of seven road stretches, including Panikholi-Keonjhar-Rimoli on national highway (NH)-215 and Chandikhole-Duburi on NH-200. The Cuttack-Paradip state road, jointly funded by the Orissa government, Paradip Port Trust and the roads ministry, will also help serve the transport of goods to and from Posco’s steel plant.

“NH-215 and NH-200 will be specifically geared to carry iron-ore traffic,” the official said. “The roads will serve Orissa’s industrial requirements for upcoming projects in the state, but Posco will be the biggest beneficiary,” he added.  …

Apart from road connectivity being provided by the Centre and the state government, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to link Haridaspur and Paradip by railways has been formed by Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL) in which Posco has 10% equity,” a Posco spokesperson said.  …

Posco-India will also build a captive port at Jatadhari, 10 km from Paradip and a captive power plant with a capacity of 1300 mw.  …

The company will also lay pipelines for industrial water utilisation from Jobra barrage.

Business Wire reports that Invensys Process Systems has been selected by Shandong No. 3 Electric Power Construction Corporation (SEPCO III) of China to implement Foxboro I/A Series distributed control systems (DCS) for a 3,600-megawatt generating station being built in Jharsuguda. Following are some quotes from that report.

Extensive Invensys experience in the power industry (including a large number of projects in China) and expertise in large-scale projects were important factors in the SEPCO III contract award to Invensys.

The DCS contract will encompass an advanced I/A Series automation infrastructure integrating more than 63,000 I/O points. The systems will be used to control the new plant’s boilers, turbines and generators utilizing Invensys’ Performance Plus coordinated control system (CCS) technology, well-proven in power plants worldwide. Subsystem applications will include data acquisition system (DAS), furnace safety supervisory system (FSSS), boiler and turbine sequence control system (SCS), turbine digital electro-hydraulic (DEH) control system, feed water pump mechanical electro-hydraulic (MEH) control system, and electric control systems (ECS).

In addition to I/A Series automation hardware and software, Invensys Process Systems China will also provide a range of installation services, engineering, training, and field service.

The plant is part of the “Power for All” initiative, an aggressive Indian government plan to sustain economic growth with significant additions of power generation capacity in the next few years. The new power plant project is one of the largest projects for SEPCO III, and comprises China’s largest export machinery and equipment order to India.

About Shandong No. 3 Electric Power Construction Corporation

Shandong No. 3 Electric Power Construction Corporation (SEPCO III) is part of Shandong Electric Power Group Corporation and is a leading power EPC contractor for thermal plants, nuclear plants, gas-fired and hydropower stations. SEPCO III was one of the first Chinese power contractors to enter the global market, and has more than 160 generation units of contract experience in China and around the world, including a range of public power and captive power projects in India. Capable of providing the full range of EPC services from its experienced professional staff, SEPCO III is headquartered in Shandong, China.

About Invensys

The Invensys Group (www.invensys.com) is headquartered in London and is listed on the London Stock Exchange, with approximately 30,000 employees working in 60 countries.

I think this is a part of one of the Power MOUs signed last october.

The Economic times reports that visa group plans to create a Thermal power plant of 1000 MW in Orissa. This will be done in 4 phases of 250 MW each with the 1st 250 W unit expected to be operational in 2010 September. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2012 March. I hope they pay serious attention to the pollution aspect.

Euronext reports that Velcan energy, a environmentally conscious energy generator has plans to create two concessions in the Baitrani river at Tarini and Bhimkund (in Anugul district).

These two places are approximately 150 kms from Bhubaneswar. This is expected to have a power production of 200,000 MWh per annum. This is expected to be a eco-friendly power project since it uses a renewable energy resource.

All the financial details are present in the euronext link above.

Financial Express reported that the Kerala government is gearing up to set up Rs 4,000-crore coal-based thermal station in Orissa.

Kerala goverment may soon sign MoU with Coal India Ltd and Orissa government for the new venture. The proposal is for generating 1,000 mw power annually for 25 years.

From http://rc.orissa.gov.in/index3.asp?linkid=30&sublinkid=219

PRESS RELEASE DT.28.05.2007(CM ATTENDS CONFRENCE ON POWER SECTOR)

GOVERNMENT OF ORISSA
PRESS RELEASE
New Delhi
May 28, 2007

Shri Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister, Orissa today attended the Conference of Chief Ministers on Power Sector at Vigyan Bhawan. The meeting, which was chaired by the Prime Minister, broadly focused on accelerated capacity addition in the power sector, efforts to reduce Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses, ensuring greater competition to open access, rural electrification and energy conservation and efficiency.
Addressing the Conference, Shri Patnaik highlighted the fact that Orissa is the first State in the country to have undertaken reforms and restructuring of the power sector. It has nearly 25% of the total coal reserves of the country and has, therefore, a natural advantage for pit-head generation of power. The CM emphasized the point that the existing duty structure, however, does not provide any incentive to the power producing States. He urged upon the Prime Minister to have a legislation enabling the power producing States to levy duty on generation of power and provide the power producing States with concessional power. Further, suitable contributions should be made by Independent Power Producers (IPPs) for mitigating environmental hazards. Capacity addition should also be eco-friendly and aim towards clean and efficient power.

In order to add capacity, the Government of Orissa has entered into MoUs with 13 companies to set up thermal power plants in the State with a total projected capacity of about 17,000 MW. Besides private companies, 5 PSUs of government of Orissa have also drawn up plans
to set up power plants. He urged upon the Centre that coal blocks should be made available to all such power producers in the State.

He informed the House that the Government of Orissa has floated 3 Shell companies to set up mini ultra power projects. They are ready to select partners provided they are allocated coal blocks.

Shri Patnaik stressed that the aggregate technical and commercial losses (AT&C) cannot be reduced to the ideal level of 15% unless substantial investment is made in power infrastructure. He urged upon the Government of India to extend a special package of Rs.2,000 crore on the pattern provided to the State of Bihar for improving the transmission and distribution sectors. He said that it was ironical that the Government of India is talking about reforms in power sector and at the same time denying the legitimate incentive to the only State of the country which has completed the reform process.

CM further mentioned that the present regulatory framework puts a cap of 4 paise per unit for inter-State sale of electricity. The power producing States should be allowed to leverage their natural advantage and no artificial restrictions whatsoever should be imposed for the benefit of more prosperous consuming States. In the name of being consumer friendly, the rate of sale of power should not be such as to demotivate the power producing States.
Shri Patnaik stated that since as many as 50 lac households of Orissa do not have access to electricity, it was logical that the State should receive a substantial allocation of funds from the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana. Further, while States like UP have received Rs.2357 crore, Bihar Rs.852 crore and Uttaranchal Rs.337 crore, Orissa has got only Rs.67 crore under the RGGVY for only two districts out of the total of 30 districts in the State. There has been inordinate delay in implementation of the programme which has necessitated the new initiative of Biju Gram Jyoti Programme in Orissa.
He also stressed upon the fact that the norm of excluding habitations with a population of less than 300 will debar a large number of tribal hamlets from the benefit of RGGVY and requested that this decision may, therefore, be reconsidered and all habitations be covered under the scheme.