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Business standard reports on this. Following are some excerpts.

 The Thapar-owned Ballarpur Industries Ltd (Bilt) power outfit BILT Power proposes to set up a 1,200-Mw independent power plant (IPP) in Orissa at an investment of around Rs 6,000 crore.

… BILT Power is expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state government soon.

Funds for the project would be sourced through loans from banks and financial institutions (FIs), of which 70 per cent would be debt and 30 per cent would come in as promoters’ equity.

BILT Power Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Anil Bhargava told Business Standard, “The detailed project report and feasibility study reports have already been submitted to the government. We are just awaiting the government nod to go ahead with the project.”

Bilt Power has already cleared the screening committee process for setting up the plant. Requirements for setting up the IPP has been forwarded to the state government.

The IPP is proposed to be set up in Choudwar on 950 acres. The Thapars already have paper production facilities in the state. They also have a captive power plant (CPP) at Sewa in Koraput district of the state.

Currently, BILT Power aggregates 100 Mw of CPP capacity at Sewa, Yamunanagar in Haryana and two plants each at Pune and Ballarshah in Maharashtra.

These plants have capacities between 25 Mw and 30 Mw each. Bilt Power has applied for allotment of coal blocks at Mandakini in the Talcher Coalfields of Orissa.

S Jagdev, head, corporate affairs, (eastern region), Bilt, said, “About 6 million tonne (MT) of coal would be required annually to feed the power plant.”

Moneycontrol reports on Money Ispat’s performance and its interest in Orissa. Following are some excerpts.

Net profit of Monnet Ispat & Energy Limited jumped by 82% at Rs. 48.55 crores in its 1st quarter of 2007-2008, vis-?-vis Rs. 26.64 crores in the corresponding quarter of last financial year. The company recorded total turnover at Rs. 234.53 crores as compared to Rs. 137.12 crores achieved in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal ?an increase of 71%. …

Emphasising its shift to energy from steel making, Delhi based Monnet Ispat & Energy Ltd. (MIEL) has signed an MoU with the Government of Orissa for setting up a 1,000 MW power plant at an estimated cost of Rs.4200 Crores. The pithead power plant will come up in the Angul district of Orissa. MIEL plans to put up the 1000 MW power project in two phases of 600 MW and 400 MW. The 1st phase will be set up at an estimated cost of Rs.2850 Crores and the 2nd Phase at a cost of Rs.1350 Crores.

“In the coming years, the company will be focused more on the energy business rather than steel. Within a year, 55% of the revenues will come from the energy business and the rest from steel.,” said Mr. Sandeep Jajodia, Managing Director, Monnet Ispat & Energy Ltd.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.