Electricity

At least six projects in West Bengal aimed at expanding the power distribution network have been stalled because farmers, fearful that their land would be seized, haven't let a state-owned utility company erect transmission towers on the plots they own.

At stake is the development of Rajarhat town--an extension of Kolkata--where a large number of real estate firms are building high-end condominiums and information-technology parks and the Tata Group is constructing a cancer hospital, and that of the Dankuni-Shaktigarh industrial belt which straddles the districts of Hooghly and Burdwan.
Unless transmission cables are installed within a few months, the construction of properties at Rajarhat would have to stop, real estate developers say.

Development at stake: A residential apartment complex in Rajarhat, an extension of Kolkata. Developers say that unless transmission cables are installed soon, construction activity at Rajarhat would have to stop

"We don't need to acquire land to erect towers. There is, in fact, no provision for land acquisition under the Electricity Act," said Moloy De, chairman of the West Bengal State Electricity Board, which controls the state's power generation and distribution companies. "We have never faced this problem before. It's always been so easy."

WBGEDC managing director S P Ganchowdhuri said work at Howrah's Sankrail will start soon. "The MoU has been signed between Howrah Municipal Corporation and Selco, a Hyderabad-based company . Some land has already been acquired. The Howrah plant will supply 8 MW of power through renewable energy sources," he said. The project will cost about Rs 50 crore. The Howrah plant would be the first of its kind in the eastern region of the country.

The Kolkata plant, Ganchowdhuri said, would supply 54 mega watt of power. "Talks are on with KMC to find a suitable location and a private partner for the Kolkata plant," he said. The projects, to be implemented on the public-private partnership model, are to be completed in the next two years. A few firms have already shown interest in the Kolkata plant.

WBGEDC managing director S P Ganchowdhuri said work at Howrah's Sankrail will start soon. "The MoU has been signed between Howrah Municipal Corporation and Selco, a Hyderabad-based company . Some land has already been acquired. The Howrah plant will supply 8 MW of power through renewable energy sources," he said. The project will cost about Rs 50 crore. The Howrah plant would be the first of its kind in the eastern region of the country.

The Kolkata plant, Ganchowdhuri said, would supply 54 mega watt of power. "Talks are on with KMC to find a suitable location and a private partner for the Kolkata plant," he said. The projects, to be implemented on the public-private partnership model, are to be completed in the next two years. A few firms have already shown interest in the Kolkata plant.

The city frequently faces power cuts due to power shortage , particularly during summer . The new Kolkata plant will bridge the gap to an extent . Ganchowdhuri also said, "WBGEDC is talking to a US university to set up a solar-cell manufacturing unit that would run on nano-technology . They would set up a research laboratory here. The project that we propose to implement by 2012 will be executed under the Centre's climate action plan," he said.

"Due to shortage of coal, generation of about 100 MW is being hampered at the two power stations of Titagarh and Cossipore," a CESC spokesperson said.

"We are not receiving adequate coal though coal companies are slowly improving their supply. However, due to lack of rakes coal is not reaching power plants," West Bengal Power Development Corporation Ltd managing director S Mahapatra said.

Mahapatra said unless the Railways increased rakes, the power situation might worsen.

At noon, the shortfall under the CESC command area was 85 MW which was likely to increase during the peak evening hours.

There was also load-shedding in the districts under the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Co Ltd.

Power generation has been hit mainly in Sagardighi, Bandel and Bakreshwar totalling about 600-650 MW.

The approved tariff of Rs.3.91 is lower than Rs.4.13 demanded by the RPG Group-owned CESC in its petition for tariff revision. CESC supplies power to Kolkata.

In the current fiscal, the gross revenue of CESC from power generation and distribution would be Rs.28.04 billion based on the new tariff against Rs.29.05 billion projected by the company based on its per unit tariff petition, an official of the state regulator said.

The state regulatory commission has also kept aside Rs.10 million from CESC's projected revenue for 2008-09 for lack of proper safety audit.

"For non-compliance of conducting safety audit in time, some revenue has been withheld from recovery by CESC," a statement issued by the regulator said.

The shortage of supply of coal has forced West Bengal Power Development Corporation Ltd (WBPDCL) to shut down a 200 MW unit in Kolaghat and two units 50 MW each in Bandel today.

"Though Coal India has promised us to supply 41,400 MT of coal per day, it has supplied only 29,057 MT of coal on an average per day to WBPDCL from 5 to 18 September,'' alleged Mr Suhridoy Mahapatra, MD WBPDCL.

This led to 12,343 MT coal shortfall per day and 1,72800 MT coal over shortage in the last 14 days, he added.

He said earlier at a meeting on 4 September when all power utilities, state power department officials, railway officials and Coal India officials were present, that Coal India officials promised them to supply 41,400 MT of coal everyday in September till the Pujas are over.

Confirming the development, West Bengal Green Energy Development Corporation Limited (WBGEDCL) managing director S.P. Gon Chowdhury said, "Videocon has already initiated the process to purchase the required land for the project directly from the farmers. The company will start construction after the monsoon and generation will start within a year." He further added that this project will help in reducing 12,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide gas emission per year.

When contacted, a senior Videocon Group official Gautam Sengupta said, "We want to sign the power purchase agreement (PPA) with the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL) soon. We will start land procurement once the PPA is signed."

He said that since the project involves huge investment, Videocon wants to ensure the signing of the PPA first before moving further with the project.

Mr Sengupta also revealed that the technology partner for the project has also been selected, but he refused to divulge further details.

Meanwhile, WBSEDCL sources said the PPA agreement with Videocon is likely to be signed in August itself.

And to this end, he has written to the West Bengal Green Energy Development Corporation (WBGEDC).

Confirming the receipt of the letter, S P Gon Chowdhury, Managing Director of WBGEDC, today said the corporation will prepare a project proposal and a technical report on the use of solar energy in the Raj Bhavan.

The power requirement of the Raj Bhavan is about 400 kilowatt and a considerable fraction of it will come from solar energy.

"We will set up a solar power plant and connect it to the main grid," said WBGEDC officials. At present, there are just two solar CFL street lamps in the Raj Bhavan premises.

Raj Bhavan officials said that after its implementation, the solar energy project would take care of the entire power requirement of the Raj Bhavan. Such a facility could also be extended to the staff quarters, an official added.

According to experts, solar power plants of 2 megawatt capacity have already been set up in the state and a 400 kilowatt power plant will not impose any problem.

On several occasions in the past, the Governor has stressed on issues like global warming and the need for ecological intelligence and use of alternative energy.

On August 7, while speaking at the convocation of the West Bengal University of Technology, he had said: "The scope for technological innovation in renewable energy sources like solar energy has no limits."

As part of Gandhi's exemplary power saving measures, the size of his official convoy has been cut down from eight cars to three. Since May 7, the Governor has also been observing voluntary powercuts for two hours a day. Despite criticism from CPM leaders, the Raj Bhavan is still adhering to its two-hour powercut schedule every day.  

Last year, it split the board into a distribution company and a transmission company, both of which are earning profits.

Interestingly, all this was done "without a single demonstration or court case", according to Malay De, the chairman of the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (WBSEDCL), which was spun off from the electricity board last year.

WBSEDCL had a revenue of Rs 6,500 crore in its first year of operation (2007-08), which is larger than that of telecom company MTNL or real estate firm DLF. However, the Rs 50 crore net profit it earned is a fraction of what firms in the same income bracket manage.

The profit would have been higher -- at Rs 450 crore -- had the trading revenues estimated at the beginning of the year been realised. "Potential benefit of Rs 760 crore trading revenue was passed on to the consumer but the company could only earn Rs 400 crore last year," explained De.

So what is the real story behind the turnaround, if it is not a trading spectacle? "Metering," says De. The 100 per cent electronic metering project was started in 2002 and was followed up by meter-by-meter energy accounting and auditing. This was not a capital intensive process with just about Rs 100 crore invested till now.

The corporate lingo:
Inclusive model:
Individuals matter:

Large areas of the city and suburbs went without power for two to four hours as the city recorded one of the largest shortfalls in recent times. The total peak demand in the CESC area was 1,443 MW while that in the rest of the state was 2,950 MW. But with as many as five power units of WBSEDCL out of gear due to coal problems, there was widespread loadshedding.

WBSEDCL supply dipped to 2,400 MW as two 210-MW units at Kolaghat, a 250-MW unit at Bandel, a 250-MW unit at Santaldih and a 300-MW unit of Dugarpur Projects Ltd could not operate due to coal shortage.

“We are going to add nearly 4,000MW. The projects will cost around Rs 25,000 crore,” he said, setting 2013 as the date for their completion.

Almost 90 per cent of the money will be raised by the utilities — the West Bengal Power Development Corporation and Durgapur Projects Limited (DPL) — while the state will buy 10 per cent equity in the projects.

“We will tide over the (power) crisis soon,” Banerjee said.

The delay in bringing on stream the power plants that were to start generation last year has severely hit the state, leading to frequent power cuts with the rise in temperature and demand.

"We've readied NBPPL's business plan and it will be placed for discussions soon. NBPPL will undertake three broad categories of business and it will be taken up in three phases," said Mr Ramesh.

Elaborating, he said: "In the first phase, the company will vie for engineering procurement and construction jobs for power plants in India and abroad. The second phase will involve manufacturing a critical balance of plant equipment for power units and in the final phase, it will set up a power equipment manufacturing plant.

The plant will have a capacity to manufacture critical components boilers and turbines for power plants with an annual capacity of 5,000 mw by 2013," said K Ravi Kumar, CMD, BHEL. The location of the plant, however, has not yet been finalised.

The company has been incorporated in Noida with an initial equity base of Rs 5 crore and a CEO will be appointed soon. The search committee under the department of heavy industries has been entrusted with the task, but the CEO will either be nominated by BHEL or NTPC.

The project will be set up over an area of 5,000 acres. The state government has asked the group to look for the land themselves and also assess the sentiment of the people of that area.The company will submit the formal proposal to the government on Friday. "The project will be set up somewhere near the sea and saline water will be transformed for its use in the factory," said the minister.

Coal will be imported from abroad for this project, said Mukherjee. "The company is willing to distribute the power in West Bengal and the state government has agreed to that," said Banerjee.

WBGEDC has developed solar photovoltaic systems, through which people can generate electricity on their rooftops. While they can utilise the energy generated in their home, the excess can be sent to the state grid. The facility includes installation of a solar module, a grid interactive inverter to push off surplus energy to grid and a net meter to calculate the bill.

According to WBGEDC managing director and special secretary-power, government of West Bengal, S P Gon Chaudhuri, a house can generate solar energy up to 90% of its own utility and can also supply up to 10% to the grid. This would mean if you consume 200 units, you can send 180 units to the grid and get it adjusted in your bill. The corporation has already allotted 25 such houses in Kolkata and is also in talks with builders to develop more such houses. The cost is estimated at about Rs 45 lakh per house. While the cost would work out to around Rs 12 per unit initially, it is expected that with further development of technology it would fall to around Rs 6 in next five years, Mr Chaudhuri said. Consumers in cities like Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Noida around NCR pay up to Rs 10 a unit on diesel-fuel captive power sets.

The corporation has also recently signed a deal with DLF to build 800 such houses in Kolkata. As per the deal, DLF will invest Rs 700 crore while the technology will come from WBGEDC. “We are expecting the houses to be ready by 2010,” said Mr Chaudhury. The rooftop solar photovoltaic technology is already in use in developed nations like Germany, Spain and also in California, US, which allow 100% generation of solar energy in houses. While Kolkata is the first to start with such technology, the corporation is ready to share it with other states. “Gradually, solar computers and portable solar generators are also becoming popular but in a country like India solar photovoltaic market is still small. We should try to make use of the huge solar potential that our country possess,” he said. Interestingly, the corporation has also installed small meters in these houses to measure the reduction in carbon dioxide emission due to use of solar energy.

“The coal we have received over the past two days is wet and muddy, so bad that is getting stuck in the conveyor belts and it is difficult to feed it into the boilers,” said S. Mahapatra, the managing director of the West Bengal Power Development Corporation.

Last evening, there was a shortfall of 450MW in the districts but only around 100MW in Calcutta as CESC generated about 990MW and got around 300MW from the state board.

Sunday was better because demand was low. But Monday could mean trouble.

All six units at the Kolaghat plant had collapsed on Tuesday after floodwaters submerged its switchyard and cable trenches. Four of them, which could be restarted only by Friday, had just started generation full-steam when the wet coal consignments dealt a blow.

The four units generated 550MW yesterday, almost 300 below capacity.

Engineers at the plant managed to start the fifth 210MW unit this evening but how much it will generate in the next few days is uncertain.