___________

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Hyderabad-based Raajratna Energy Holdings Private Limited (REHPL), a company engaged in the development of renewable energy projects has announced the commissioning of its 1 MW solar power plant at Sadeipali in western Orissa’s Bolangir district on last Monday.

Incidentally, this is the third grid connected solar power plant in the country. The plant was successfully synchronized with the grid on June 30 this year. This project has been commissioned in a record time of five months at an estimated cost of Rs 16-17 crore.

It has been implemented under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) of Rooftop PV (Photo Voltaic) and Small Solar Power Generation Programme (RPSSGP) Scheme of the Union ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

The project was executed by AIC Projects GmbH, Germany and KSK Surya-Hyderabad. REHPL has expressed its gratitude to Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC) for its timely funding of the project.

To give a boost to solar power generation, Gridco had signed Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with eight solar developers, each with a capacity of 1 MW. It had also inked an MoU with Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) to avail generation based incentive (GBI) under the Union ministry of new & renewable energy (MNRE) through IREDA under Rooftop Photovoltaic and Small Solar Generation Programme (RPSSGP) scheme.

In addition to this, Gridco had also entered into power sale agreement with NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of NTPC Ltd, to avail solar power bundled with equivalent capacity of thermal power from unallocated share of upcoming NTPC stations under ‘New Solar Projects’ scheme of MNRE. Under the said scheme, 20 MW of solar power has been allocated to Gridco. 

Following is an excerpt from a Business Standard report.

The company plans to set up three hydro power projects with a combined capacity of 300 MW at Sindol (Sindol I,II,III) near Dhenkanal in Orissa, said the official.
    
NHPC would be the majority partner in the joint venture with 51 per cent stake and the rest 49 per cent would be held by the Orissa government.
     
Hydro power generation capacity of Orissa stands at 2065.4 MW, Hirakud (331.4 MW), Balimela (360 MW), Rengali (250 MW), Upper Kolab (320 MW), Upper Indravati (600 MW) and Machhkund (54 MW), as per government data.
     
NHPC has a current power generation capacity of 5,322 MW and the company is planning to augment this capacity to about 10,000 MW by the end of the current Five Year Plan Period (2007-12).

Note: As per an earlier report http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/3423 the exact sites are in Sambalpur and Sonepur districts.

Following is from a report by Bishnu Das in Business Standard.

The Orissa government has approved nine more solar power projects with an aggregate generation capacity of 57 Mw.

The State Technical Committee (STC), headed by the secretary in the science and technology department, cleared these projects recently.

With this, the total envisaged solar power capacity in the state has gone up to 351 Mw from 294 Mw earlier.

Projects with an aggregate generation capacity of 45 Mw were approved under the Bundling Scheme for Solar Power Plants of the Union ministry of New and Renewable Energy Sources (MNRE). Similarly projects of 12 Mws were approved under the Generation Based Incentive Scheme for Roof Top and Small Solar Generation of the Central sector utility major, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).

The projects approved under the Bundling scheme included Skygen Infrabuild (P) Ltd (5 Mw), Rajratna Energy Holdings (10 Mw), MGM Minerals (5 Mw), Konark Kranti Energy (P) Ltd (5 Mw) and Sunark Solar (P) Ltd (20 Mw).

Skygen Infrabuild plans to set up a 5 Mw solar power project in Khurda district. Similarly, Rajratna Energy Holdings is interested to set up 10 Mw solar power plant in Dhenkanal district.

While the solar plants of MGM Minerals and Sunark Solar would come up in Khurda district, Konark Kranti Energy proposes to locate its unit Dhenkanal district.

On the other hand, four projects cleared under the Roof Top and Small Solar Generation scheme of NTPC included 3 Mw plant of Sunark Solar (Khurda district), 3 Mw project of Abacus Holdings (Ganjam district), 3 Mw project of Orion Solar Projects (Cuttack district) and 3 Mw plant of Skygen Infrabuild (Khurda district).

For the last several months various media reports have made the following points regarding the power situation in Odisha:

• There is a power crisis in Odisha and the government plans to do power cuts.
• GRIDCO will get a 1000 crore loan from the government. I.e., it is in a bad situation.
• OERC hiked the power tariff by 30%.

Bimal Pandia has some of the facts behind all these in his blog. Following is an excerpt from his blog.

OERC has noted that the Grid Corporation (Gridco) – which buys power from producers and sells to distribution companies – has suffered huge losses and by the end of year 2009-10 the loss may well surpass 1,500 crore rupees. While the loss to Gridco is true, not many people know that the loss was – to a large extent – an outcome of very low power supply from Orissa Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC), the state owned corporation that owns hydro-power units in Orissa.  

The Gridco procures power from various sources at OERC fixed rates. As per the process, Gridco had informed the OERC that Orissa will require a total of 18,726.15 Million Unit (MU) in the year 2009-10. It then informed about the sources from which it intends to procure and meet this requirement. Like the Gridco, other players in the power supply network like the power producers, transmitters and consumer representatives also submitted their design power generation, expenditure burdens and what price they expect etc. Taking everything into account the OERC decides quantity of power to be supplied to Gridco and their rate. It also decides power tariff for consumers and end users. While going through this process for the year 2009-10, the Gridco had submitted its plan to meet Orissa’s power requirement. There is no point for guessing that hydro power being the cheapest among all sources was and is the first choice for Gridco. The Gridco, relying on OHPC sources, had estimated that it will get 6,184.44 MU from OHPC. However parties appearing for the consumers submitted that this was a too conservative estimate and ‘Gridco has merely accepted the data submitted by the OHPC and has not done independent assessment of hydro power availability’.  They submitted that ‘the availability of power from state hydro stations would be around 7,680 MU in FY 2009-10 as against the GRIDCO proposal of 6,184 MU’. But the OERC negated consumer’s estimation and instead agreed to the estimates made by Gridco. Though, OERC did not agree to consumer’s assertion that the consumers are losing out on cheapest energy, still 6184 MU from the OHPC in the year 2009-10 was the single most dominant procurement source for Gridco.  This allotment constituted about one-third of its total energy procurement target for the year at a very cheap rate of 57.66 paise per unit on an average with power from Machhkund being the cheapest among all hydro power centres at 13.90 paise per unit and Indravati being the costliest at 73.35 paise.

In contrast, other sources – from which Gridco budgeted to procure the remaining two-third of required power – were 3.35 to 5.2 times costlier. The purchase rate – fixed by OERC – from Orissa Power Generation Corporation (OPGC) owned thermal power plants is 193.70 paise per unit; from Central Power Generation Corporation (Primarily NTPC) is 197.31 paise; from central hydro sources like Chukha, Tala and Teesta is 190.30 paise; from Captive Generation Plants (CGPs) in Orissa is 300 paise; and from renewable sources at 269.43 paise per unit. OHPC’s power, being the cheapest and the largest source, was expected to moderate all these costly sources and keep Gridco’s total purchase cost at 2,923.80 crore rupees for 19,619.11 MU of power required for Orissa in the year 2009-10, at 148.27 paise per unit.   

So the power sources, per unit cost, units to be made available etc. were all decided by the OERC. Had everything gone as per the plan, Gridco would not have bled losses. But that was not to be. OHPC – the most vital source that moderated Gridco’s total purchasing cost to a reasonable level – faltered in making committed supply to the Gridco. For a period OHPC’s supply almost dried up as if its reservoir beds have gone bare. At the last count, OHPC managed to produce just 4,136.139 MU till 25 March, 2010. With only six days remaining of this financial year, the OHPC is expected to produce another 60 MU. This will take OHPC’s total energy production for the year 2009-10 to about 4,200 MU. This is a mere two-third of what was expected from it. Because of this huge deficit supply from the OHPC, the Gridco was forced to scout for other suppliers to plug the gap. That has undone all calculations and caused severe losses to Gridco. As the other sources from which Gridco gets supply are already stretched, they are in no position to make additional supply to Gridco. Even if they make supply, the cost will be many times more than that of OHPC’s power. Now, Gridco has no other way than to purchase power from wily producers at exorbitant cost. Some privately owned CGPs, with whom the Gridco has purchase agreement, charge OERC fixed rate up to the agreement level. Beyond that… it’s the producer’s fiefdom – to grab profits as much as possible from the Gridco’s misery. The negotiations are held hardly on equal terms. The OERC plays no role there; it does not have any jurisdiction to play either. Naturally, power rates spiral with the summer heat. In such a similar situation, the Gridco purchased power at more than 800 paise per unit last year. The situation is ripe to worsen this year. Gridco has lost substantial units of very low cost energy – hydro power – and is now compensating that loss with very high cost energy.

The above explains the situation very nicely. Mr. Pandia then gives the data on the reservoir situation and says that they are in better shape (based on March 1 data) than previous years. But then he speculates that some "cleaver ploy is cooking." I think his analysis in the excerpt above explains the situation nicely. In short the initial OERC tariff was based on some assumption on how much power will come from OHPC. Now that OHPC did not supply that amount of power the last year (leading to 1000+ crore loss to OERC) and may not supply that amount this year, obviously OERC has to revise its tariff based on the new reality of how much power will come from where and how much will it cost.

Moreover, all these have not much to do with whether Odisha is a power surplus state or not. There is now a power market in the country. It is a question of balancing the cost of power and the revenue from the consumers.

Following is from a report in Business Standard.

The National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) plans to set up three hydro power projects in Orissa with an aggregate generation capacity of 300 Mw.

These projects will be developed in joint venture (JV) with the Orissa Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC). Meanwhile, NHPC has sent a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) to the Orissa government for approval, sources said.

The three projects, namely Sindol-1, Sindol-II and Sindol-III, would be developed by NHPC in the first phase on a pilot basis. All these projects are located on river Mahanadi. Sindol-1, at Deogaon in Sambalpur district, will have a capacity of 90 Mw. Similarly, the installed capacity of Sindol-II, located at Kapasira in Sonepur district, will also be 90 Mw. The largest among the three, Sindol-III, located at Godhaneswar in Sonepur district, will have a generation capacity of 120 Mw. NHPC will have 51 percent stake in the joint venture company and the remaining 49 percent will be held by OHPC.

Sources said, NHPC has in principle agreed to provide 100 percent power to be generated from these units to the state grid. However, it is awaiting the final nod of the Union ministry of power in this regard. Though OHPC earlier proposed to develop these units on its own, the government has changed its mind in favour of a joint venture with NHPC.

… It may be noted, the government planned to develop about nine hydro-electric projects in the JV mode, out of which three projects would be set up in the first stage. The identified projects are Middle Kolab Hydro-Electric Project, Tel Integrated Project, Lower Vansadhara Project, Balijori Hydro-Electric Project, Khadago Project, Salki Hydro-Electric Project, Uttei and Roul Integrated Project, Mahanadi-Brahmani river link and Baramul Hydro-Electric project.

Following is an excerpt from a cleantechnica.com report.

NTPC Ltd., formerly known as National Thermal Power Corporation, is planning to develop 500MW wind and solar energy projects in the Indian state of Orissa. NTPC is India’s largest power generation company and generates a big majority of power from coal-fired power plants. However, the company is now foraying into renewable energy and low carbon intensive generation technologies like hydro, nuclear and renewables.

The company recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Orissa government in order to obtain approva for setting up the power plant. Orissa is a coastal state located in the south-eastern part of India. In addition to significant offshore wind resources, Orissa also blessed with substantial solar energy resource. The company has signed similar MoUs with the government agencies in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, all highly potential areas on India’s energy map.

Bishnu Das’s article in Business Standard lists many of the solar and biomass power unit projects that are in the pipeline in Odisha. Following are some excerpts.

Solar power units:

• 5 Mw power plant of RSB Energy Pvt Ltd in Sundergarh district
• Enzen Global Solutions’s 5 Mw solar power plant in Khurda district
• Lanco Solar’s 5 Mw solar plant in Cuttack district
• Sunark Solar’s 5 Mw power plant in Puri district
• Kolkata based SREI Infrastructure’s 5 Mw solar power plant in Bolangir district
• Moserbaer Pvt Ltd’s 5 Mw grid interactive solar photo voltaic project
• Sahara India’s 5 Mw solar power plant

Biomass power units:

• Rice husk based power plant being set up by Shali Vahana Green Energy Ltd at Nimidha village in Dhenkanal district
• Satya Bio-Power Industry Ltd planning to set up a 10 Mw plant in Ganjam
• A V N Power Projects setting up a 10 Mw power plant in Kalahandi district
• Prasad Bio-Energy planning a 10 Mw unit in Raygada
• Jay Laxmi Bio-Energy Ltd intends to set up a 10 Mw unit in Nayagarh
• Another plant of similar capacity is proposed by Andhavarapu Bio-Energy in Nawarangpur

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

The state owned power generator, Orissa Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC) will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) for developing some multi-purpose projects in the state with a generating capacity of above 25 Mw.

Together, these projects are expected to generate about 1500 Mw to 2000 Mw power. NHPC has in principle agreed to develop these projects though the number of projects is yet to be decided.

These multi-purpose projects are proposed to be implemented through joint venture (JV) with a shareholding of 51 percent by NHPC and 49 percent by OHPC. … A team of officials from NHPC has already visited the potential sites and completed the pre-feasibility studies.

The projects which have been identified to be implemented through JV are Sindol-I, Middle Kolab Hydro-Electric Project, Tel Integrated Project, Lower Vansadhara Project, Balijori Hydro-Electric Project, Salki Hydro-Electric Project, Uttei and Roul Integrated Project, Mahanadi-Brahmani river link and Baramul Hydro-Electric project.

Sources said, the state government is seeking 100 percent power from these projects and NHPC has sought permission from the Union power ministry to allow 100 percent power to Orissa. 

… It may be noted, the state government has signed MoU with private developers for developing 29 small hydro electric projects (SHEP) having capacity of less than 25 Mw.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

… the Orissa government has approved two more bio-mass based power projects with a combined generating capacity of 39 Mw of power.

With this the total envisaged generating capacity in the bio-mass sector will increase to 129 Mw. Earlier, the government had approved 8 bio-mass based power projects with a combined generation capacity of 90 Mw.

… to promote bio-mass based power plants through the use of the wastes like rice husk, groundnut cover, coconut cover and other agricultural waste, the state government has started some initiative and approved the setting up of ten bio-mass based projects so far.

The State Level Technical Committee (STC) chaired by the secretary, science and technology, in its meeting held recently cleared two proposals- one by Starlight Energy’s proposal to set up a 15 Mw bio-mass power plant at Nuapada and the other by Mahavir Hitech Chemicals (P) Ltd to set up a 5 Mw power plant in Ratanpur village of Sundargarh district.

STC has also approved setting up of five more solar power projects aggregating 25 Mw in the state. The proposals include 5 Mw power plant proposed by RSB Energy Pvt. Ltd in Sundergarh dicstrict and Enzen Global Solutions’s plan to set up a 5 Mw solar power plant in Khurda district.

Similarly, Lanco Solar’s 5 Mw solar plant to be set up in Cuttack district, Sunark Solar’s 5 Mw power plant in Puri district and Kolkata based SREI Infrastructure’s proposal to set up a 5 Mw solar power plant in Bolangir district have been given the green signal.

Earlier the state government had approved Moserbaer Pvt Ltd’s 5 Mw grid interactive solar photo voltaic project and Sahara India’s proposal to set up a 5 Mw solar power plant in the state.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standrad.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), the country’s largest oil marketing company is exploring the possibility of setting up a wind mill in Paradeep (Orissa). The wind mill is likely to be operational either in or after 2012. …

The company has already set up two wind mills in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu”, V Ramgopal, general manager (marketing), IOCL told reporters here.

… IOCL was planning to set up a new depot at Jharsuguda in western Orissa at an investment of about Rs 100 crore. The proposed depot would have the capacity of around 60,000 kilo litre (KL).At present, the company is scouting for 35-40 acres of land for this modern depot. Plans are also afoot to deepen the reach of LPG cylinders among the people in Orissa.

Presently, only 18 per cent of the state’s population has LPG connections and we are aiming to extend the LPG connections to 50 per cent of the population within the nest two years, Ramgopal informed.

IOCL was planning to launch the LPG Gramin Vithark scheme in the state to reach out to the rural customers.

About eight lakh people in the state have LPG connections with Hindustan Petroleum being the market leader in this segment with 4.2 lakh customers followed by IOCL at 3.6 lakh, said Ramgopal.

Following is an excerpt from the PIB release http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=51774.

The Board of Approval of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) met today consider proposals for setting up of Special Economic Zones and also to approve other miscellaneous requests pertaining to SEZs.

            Addressing the Board of Approval members, the Chairman informed that so far 577 formal approvals have been granted for setting up of SEZs out of which 325 have been notified. He further informed that over Rs.1,16,879 crore have been invested in the Special Economic Zones during this short span of time and direct employment of the order of 4,27,908 persons has been generated in the Special Economic Zones.  During the first quarter of current financial year, total export of Rs.39,411 crore approx. has been made from SEZs.

            In this meeting, 7 proposals for setting up of SEZ were considered.  The Board recommended grant of two formal approvals and one In-Principle Approvals.

·                     Formal Approvals:

Ø                   IT/ITES/BPO/EH – M/s. Brooke Bond Real Estates Private Limited SEZ at Bangalore, Karnataka.

Ø                   EH/ITES – M/s. Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd. at Shimoga, Karnataka.

·                     In-Principle Approval:

Ø                   Solar SEZ – M/s. Lanco Solar Pvt. Ltd. at village Ramdaspur, Cuttak District, Orissa.

 

…

Following is from a report in Business standard:

The Orissa government today cleared projects worth Rs 1,27, 727 crore in steel, aluminium, power, downstream and ore beneficiation sectors.

The list includes 3 projects in the steel sector, 2 projects in the aluminium sector, 6 projects in the power sector, one downstream unit, and two beneficiation and pelletisation units.

… enhancement of the steel capacity of Jindal Stainless Limited (JSL) from 1.6 million tonne per annum (mtpa) to 3.2 mtpa at Kalinganagr Industrial Complex at an investment of Rs 16,266 crore and enhancement of capacity of Visa Steel in the same location from 0.35 mtpa to 1.5 mtpa at an investment of Rs 4995 crore were approved by HLCA.

The public sector aluminum major Nalco’s proposal to set up a 0.5 mtpa alumina smelter and 1260 mw power plant in two phases (840Mw + 420 Mw) at an investment of Rs 16,345.89 crore was also approved. Though the company preferred to set up the project at Brajarajnagar, the location might change. The company is seeking 275.30 hectares of land for the smelter and 575.7 hectares for the power plant.

Similarly, the proposal of the Navayuga Steels for setting up a 12 mtpa port based steel complex at Astaranga in Puri district at an investment of Rs 34,000 crore was cleared by the HLCA. The project will come up in 4 phases and the government will not commit any raw material linkage to it.

Though the company requires 4000 acres of land, the government will assess the land requirement as per the benchmarking report after the company submits the detailed project report (DPR), the minister added.

The public sector National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) was given the green signal to set up a 3200 Mw coal based mega power plant at an investment of Rs19,840 crore near the village Gajamara in Dhenkanal district. It requires about 3000 acres of land for the project and will source water from Mahanadi.

However, Jindal Stainless’ proposal to set up 1000 Mw Independent Power Producer (IPP) at an investment of Rs 4090 crore in the same location did not find favour with HLCA with the committee asking the company to change the site of the project.

Other projects which received the nod of HLCA are Rs 6800 crore investment proposal of RSB Metal-tech for setting up 1.4 mtpa alumina refinery, 0.35 mtpa aluminium smelter and 900 Mw CPP at an investment of Rs 6800 crore, Kalinga Energy’s 1000Mw thermal power project at an investment of Rs 4261 crore at Babuchakuli, Arati Steel’s 500Mw thermal power project at Ghantikhal in Cuttack district, Rs 4994 crore investment proposal of Chambal Infrastructures and Ventures Limited for setting up of 1200Mw thermal power plant at Siaria in Dhenkanal district.

Besides, Hyderabad based Lanco Solar’s 250 Mw fully integrated plant to manufacture crystalline silicon solar cells at an investment of Rs 2800 crore in Dhenkanal district, Bhushan Power and Steel Limited (BPSL)’s downstream and ancillary complex in Sambalpur district at an investment of Rs 1953.87 crore, JSW Steel’s proposal to set up 7 mtpa iron ore beneficiation plant and 5 mtpa pelletisation plant at Kamalang in Sundergarh district at an investment of Rs 1450 crore were through in today’s meeting.

Besides, the proposal of Welspun Orissa Steel to set up a 4.5 mtpa beneficiation plant at Nayagarh in Keonjhar district and 4.4 mtpa pellet plant at Dhamra in Bhadrakh district with an envisaged investment of Rs 1963 crore, the proposal of Astaranga Power Company to set up a 2460 Mw power plant at Astaranga at an estimated cost of Rs 11,200 crore were approved by the HLCA.

However, the decision on the 700 mw (Rs 1007crore) power plant proposal of Ind Bharat Energy, 1320 mw (Rs 5604 crore) power plant proposal of Sahara India Power Corporation and the 1100 Mw (Rs 4810 crore ) power plant proposal of Visaka Thermal were deferred.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Financial Express.

Orissa government’s Single Window Committee on Thursday cleared 13 industrial projects involving a total investment of Rs 27,193 crore. It includes three power projects, one steel, two cement, five iron ore beneficiation and pelletisation, on photo cell and one brewery projects.

… The big-ticket projects recommended to HLCC are Visakha Thermal Power Plant, Hind Bharat Energy, Lanco Solar, JSW Steel, Bhusan Power & Steel Ltd, Astarang Power Company Ltd and Welspun Steel Ltd.

While Astarang Power Company Ltd is planning to set up a 2640 mw plant in Puri district with an investment of Rs 11,200 crore, Visakha is proposing to set up an 1100 mw plant in Bhadrak district entailing an investment of Rs 4800 crore. The Hind Bharat Energy is proposing to enhance the capacity of its power project at Jharsuguda to 700 mw from 250 mw investing Rs 3150 crore. Bhusan Power & Steel, on the other hand, is setting up steel facilities for cold rolling steel, wire, rod, galvanised steel besides cement at Sambalpur, with an investment of Rs 2000 crore.

Welspun has plans to set up a 4.5m tonne per annum (mtpa) iron ore beneficiation and pelletisation plant in Bhadrak district with an investment of Rs 1900 crore. Simultaneously, JSWA is proposing to set up a 7 mtpa iron ore beneficiation plants and a 5 mtpa pelletisation plant in Sundergarh district investing Rs 1450 crore.

Among the projects cleared by the panel, Bhusan Steel Ltd is going to put up facilities for 4 mtpa iron ore beneficiation and pelletisation in Keonjhar district with an investment of Rs 850 crore.

Following is excerpted from a report in tathya.in. The various projects that were cleared are:

• A 12 MTPA Greenfield steel mill at Astaranga in Puri district by Navayug Steels Limited with an investment of Rs.34,000 crore. Linkage for iron ore has not been covered in the proposed mega project. The Navayug Group is setting up a port in Astaranga with an investment of Rs.6000 crore and a 2640 mw mega thermal power plant with an investment of Rs.11200 crore in Astaranga.
• Bhusan Steels Limited (BSL), which is setting up a 3.10 MTPA steel mill in Meramundali in Dhenkanal was allowed to expand it’s capacity to produce 9 mtpa with an additional investment of Rs.20,804 crore.
• Reliable Sponge’s proposal to set up a 0.25 MTPA steel plant along with a 24 mw captive power plant having a total investment of Rs.227.13 crore was cleared by the Authority.
• Emami Paper Mills Limited (EPML) proposal for a 1.32 lakh ton per annum Newsprint unit along with a co-generation power plant for an investment of Rs.500 crore was cleared.  EPML has established a paper mill at Balasore in 1982 and the new plant will come up in the same area. 
• Purvi Bharat Paper & Power (PBPP) has proposed for a 33,000 TPA writing & printing paper mill at Choudwar in Cuttack district with an investment of Rs.90.50 crore.
• The proposal to set up 5 mw solar park near Bhubaneswar with an investment of Rs.125 crore by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) received clearance of the Authority.
• In total, the State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) on 17 March cleared the proposed investment of Rs.55,650 crore in 6 projects.

Following is an excerpt from a report by Reuters, UK.

Reliance Industries (RELI.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), India’s largest listed firm, plans to spend about 1 billion rupees ($25 million) building a solar power plant, the Times of India reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.

The paper said work on the project in eastern state of Orissa would start during 2008/09 (April-March) and take six months to complete.

Following is an excerpt from a report in New Indian Express.

Andhra Pradesh has agreed to the State Government proposal to share 50 percent of the total energy generated from Machhkund hydro power station in Koraput district.

A ministerial level meeting of the two States in Hyderabad today resolved to get approval of the governments on the proposal within one month. The two States will sign an agreement here sometime in April, said Energy Minister S N Patro.

The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) will be approached for evaluation of asset and the cost of the additional 20 percent share of the hydro power station will be paid to Andhra Pradesh.

The meeting also decided to go for renovation and uprating of the hydro power station having installed generating capacity of 114.75 mega watt. The cost for renovation and uprating will be shared on 50:50 basis, Patro said, adding the staffing pattern will be on equal basis.

Following is an excerpt from a report in dnainida.com.

The Orrisa Government has decided to set up more small and micro hydel projects to generate ‘Clean Power’.

“We have sanctioned at least 28 small and micro projects which will generate hydro-power by setting up units on rivers and canals,” Energy minister S N Patro said.

Patro, after chairing a meeting of the state Technical Committee here said the government had received proposals for establishing 82 more small hydel projects in the state.

The proposals were forwarded for verification by the technical committee, official sources said.

Officials from the Department of Energy, Water Resources, Grid Corporation of Orissa and Orissa Hydro Power Generation Corporation, were members of the technical committee who would recommend the small and micro projects, they said.

The minister said while government agencies identified 34 locations for setting up small and micro hydel projects, private parties were interested in 48 other places.

“All the projects will be developed on the basis of private investments,” the minister said adding the capacity of units would range from 100 KW to 25 MW.

An additional 700 MW could be generated in the state, if the project were implemented properly, he said.

… “The small and micro hydel projects will also get a concession of 14 paise per unit of power generation,” he said.

Telegraph also reports on this and summarizes the surplus power situation in Orissa as follows:

More than 1,800MW of power is available in the state as against the average demand of 1,600 to 1700MW.

While the state generates around 600MW of this total electricity from hydro power stations, it gets around 700MW from thermal plants.

The rest is part of the state’s share from the eastern grid and the Centre–owned power plants located in the state.

The state government has already signed MoUs with 13 companies, including Tata Power, Visa Power, Calcutta Electricity Supply Corporation, Essar Power, Jindal Photo, Bhusan Energy and Sterlite Energy, last September for establishment of thermal power plants with an investment of about Rs 59,000 crore to generate about 11,000MW.

Recently, the state government has cleared expansion of three thermal power projects with an additional capacity of 2,000MW.

Sambada names some of the places where this project will be.

Their web site is www.oredaorissa.com.

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.

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.

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. …