Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) will get independent experts from outside to offer professional advice

For the first time since its constitution, over 60 years ago, Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) will get independent experts from outside to offer professional advice on irrigation, water supply and generation and transmission of electricity.

These members would be part-time and would help broad-base the organisation which is now co-owned by the Centre and the governments of Jharkhand and West Bengal and administered by the Union Power Ministry.

The move is in line with the recommendation made by the Administrative Staff College of India which was mandated to examine the corporation's restructuring.

An amendment to the DVC Act of 1948 would be necessary for this and this was approved by the Union Cabinet on Thursday. A Bill to this effect would be introduced in the forthcoming Parliament session.

After remaining headless for quite a few years, Rabindra Nath Sen took charge as DVC's new Chairman from June 10. Following the decision to broadbase the DVC, the Cabinet decided that the post of financial adviser and secretary would be abolished. This was vacant for some time Instead, there would be four full-time members — in charge of technical and finance, besides the chairman and a member secretary. There would be six part-time members, including the four experts. The corporation has thermal and hydel power plants in West Bengal and Jharkhand and plays a major role in flood control in its command area.

Joint Venture between Tata Power and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) is implementing a 2 x 525 MW coal-fired power project power in Jharkhand

Leading private power producer, Tata Power, on Monday said it has achieved full-load generation of the 525 MW unit 1 of the Maithon mega power project at Dhanbad in Jharkhand.

The full load generation was achieved on June 30, after the successful synchronisation of the unit under the requisite standard requirements, the company said in a statement issued here on Monday.

Maithon Power Limited (MPL), the 74:26 Joint Venture between Tata Power and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) is implementing a 2 x 525 MW coal-fired power project power in Jharkhand.

The release said that MPL has firmed up fuel supplies from Coal India Limited and its subsidiaries and has also signed a fuel supply agreement (FSA) with Bharat Coking Coal for supply of coal to the project.

MPL has signed power purchase agreements (PPA) and power evacuation arrangement has been put in place by Power Grid Corporation of India.

The power generated from this project will not only be supplied to DVC, but will also be exported to power deficit northern states, the release said.

Chief minister Arjun Munda asked the DVC to supply power to domestic consumers

RANCHI: The state government on Friday asked the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) to supply power to domestic consumers in 10 districts that fall in the command area of the company. At present, the company supplies power to only big consumers.
The directive was issued to the company during chief minister Arjun Munda's meeting with Damodar
Valley Corporation chairman R N Sen.
According to officials in the chief minister's secretariat, the company officials present in the meeting Munda categorically said that Damodar Valley Corporation should ensure supply to domestic consumers of the 10 districts.
"The chief minister has the company to follow the provisions which ensures 100% supply in the command area," said an official adding that chairman of DVC assured that he will take up the matter and ensure supply to domestic consumers in its command area.

Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) is facing serious problems regarding railway linkage to new DVC projects

CHANDIGARH: “Ensure allocation of coal blocks to central and state sector generating stations on priority and remove constraints in coal movement by rail” All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has written a letter to Prime Minister.

Padamjit Singh Chairman AIPEF has written a letter to Prime Minister giving its views and suggestions for consideration in the proposed review meeting for power and coal sectors to be held on July 1. The letter states that there is a need to give priority to state sector and central sector power projects for allocating of coal mines/ captive coalmines.

In particular the coal blocks which were earlier awarded to NTPC and DVC which were cancelled need to be reconsidered and reviewed In such cases, each power utility must give a time bound action plan for development and utilization of the coal mine and this needs to l be monitored on monthly basis/ quarterly basis .The second suggestion is regarding constraints in coal movement. A number of load centre coal based power station are coming up which are located far from the coal mine. The existing railway transportation system is already saturated. The existing railway system would not be able to take the addition traffic of coal movement for the new power stations. This will lead to stranding of generation capacity due to Railway constraints.

It was earlier envisaged that the dedicated freight corridor would come up by 2014-15, but there is little progress, and the dedicated freight corridor would get delayed to 2017 or beyond. In this case the load centre thermal stations that would get commissioned earlier would face problem of railway transportation, and result in stranded capacity.

The construction work on dedicated freight corridor (eastern) from west Bengal up to Ludhiana was inaugurated by the Prime Minister. Manmohan Singh at Ludhiana in Sept. 2006, but despite a lapse of 5 years, there is little / no progress on the ground. In the meanwhile several state/ central sector thermal projects have come up. and are envisaged to come up in Northern Region,

Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) is facing serious problems regarding railway linkage to new DVC projects. Capacity of Mejia is being increased from 1340 MW to 2340 MW with commissioning of 2x500 MW Stage-II. However, the Railway Track from Raniganj to Mejia has not been doubled while the present single line/ track is capable of supplying coal for 1340 MW capacity only. With the coming of 2x500 MW stage 2 units, 1000 MW capacity would get stranded. Further 2x500 MW units at Durgapur / Andal, 2x500 MW units at Koderma and 2xd600 MW units at Raghunathpur are in process of being completed / commissioned but the railway track system is not in existence at these projects.

Farakka is a pit head state of NTPC which has to depend upon additional supply of coal by rail. Due to railway constraints, NTPC is now proposing to move coal by barges/ water way transportation. Similarly Kehalgaon STPS of NTPC is having serious coal supply transportation problem, even though is station is located in coal producing state of Bihar. For load centre thermal station located 1000-1500 km from coal mines, the problems would be more serious.

Another serious concern is supply of Chinese equipment to new power plants .In a competitive bidding system for new power plants; Chinese equipment being lower price gets the advantage to win the contract. The bidding process is based mainly on price, whereas quality does not get quantified / specified.

In particular case of two projects which Chinese equipment of M/s Shanghai was supplied through EPC contractor to Reliance and the feedback obtained by engineers who visited China is really shocking. It has been informed that Chinese (Shenghai) equipment comes in three broad quality ranges and the equipment at Yamunanagar, Hisar, and Raghunathpur comes under category ‘C’. When project engineers complained to the Chinese officials regarding poor quality the reply was that at the lowest price/ rate, the better quality cannot be expected.

Electricity. Act 2003, National Electricity Policy and Tariff Policy, mentions that the generation projects can be taken up in State sector. However, for new project the Government has made it mandatory to adopt competitive bidding. Despite this provision several state governments like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, have notified their own generation policy under which the state govt. can set up thermal projects under MOU route with private sector companies. This contradicts and conflicts with the provision of Tariff policy. Projects awarded under such MOU route will have higher tariff as compared to competitive bid projects, as has been confirmed by CERC.

Amendment of coal linkage policy for 12th Plan Power Projects

The  foll ow ing criteria  has been added  for  getting coal linkage for power projects in 12th Plan

"Actual drawal of coal will be subject to 85% of power being tied up through long term PPA with DISCOMs through tariff based competitive bidding (except for PSL projects where PPAs were signed by 05/01/2011.”

This issue with the approval of Minister of Power.

Planning Commission has constituted a Working Group on Power

Planning Commission has constituted a Working Group on Power in the context of preparation of Twelfth Five Year Plan under the chairmanship of Secretary (Power) and members from vanous Ministries/Departments/PSUs and private sector representatives vide order dated 4th March,  2011.

Further, in order to assist the Working Group in its task separate Sub­ Groups on specific aspects have been constituted. The Sub-Group 4 on 'Legislative   and  Policy  Issues  - Formulation,  Implementation  and Feedback'     has    been    constituted    under    the     chairmanship    of Sh. Ashok Lavasa, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Power. Study groups within Sub group IV have been constituted with members from various Ministries/ Departments/ PSUs/ Power Utilities/ Private sector and Elite Educational Institutions.

 The Terms of Reference ofthe Sub-Group will be as under:-

i)   Review status of various Policies notified under Electricity Act, 2003 and identify steps to realize objectives of Act.
ii)    Recommend Industry Structure to:

a.   Enhance number of players b.   Promote competition

c.   Provide  consistent  &  transparent  pncmg  regime  and  raise conversion, transmission, distribution and end use efficiency.

d.   Improve efficiency

iii)       Review of ongoing Reform process undertaken by States in the Power Sector with special emphasis on financial health of distribution utilities.

In this regard, Suggestions/ Feed back/ Comments are invited from all the stake holders/ general public at subgroup4policy@googlegroups.com and subgroup4policy@gmail.com.

Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) have asked the government to reconsider its decision to deallocate the Gondulpara coal block

Tenughat Vidyut Nigam (TVNL) and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) have asked the government to reconsider its decision to deallocate the Gondulpara coal block jointly allocated to them in Jharkhand as the mine falls in a "no-go" zone.

The development comes in the backdrop of the Coal Ministry last month deciding to cancel the allotment of 14 coal blocks and one lignite block to six PSUs, including TVNL and DVC, over their failure to develop the mines.

"TVNL and DVC wrote a letter to the Coal Ministry last week and requested it to reconsider its decision of deallocation of Gondulpara coal block," sources in the Coal Ministry said.

The coal mine was allocated in 2006 to TVNL as a leader and DVC as an associate to meet the coal requirement for their joint venture power project.
The ministry had in October last month issued a notice to both firms asking them to explain why the coal blocks allocated should not be withdrawn over their failure to develop the reserves within the stipulated time.

Under its deallocation drive, the Coal Ministry has this year cancelled coal blocks of various firms, including five mines of National Thermal Power Corporation and three blocks of Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corporation.

Other firms that were sent deallocation letters by the Coal Ministry include Bhatia International Ltd, Shree Bhaidyanath Ayurved Bhavan Ltd, Jharkhand State Electricity Board, Damodar Valley Corporation and Gondwana Ispat Ltd,
among others.

To weed out non-serious players, the government had last year issued notices to 84 coal and four lignite block allocatees for not developing the same within the stipulated time and sought an explanation as to why the rights to the blocks should not be cancelled.