The Supreme Court today directed DVC

New Delhi, Aug 17 (PTI) The Supreme Court today directed Damodar Valley
Corporation (DVC) to give information on its accounts so that it can ascertain
whether electricity regulator CERC has properly fixed its power tariffs, based
on its expenditure and other inputs. A bench comprising Chief Justice S H
Kapadia and Justice K S Radhakrishnan said it would look into the accounts of
the DVC and some other power producers to examine whether the CERC had validly
fixed tariff for the April, 2006-March, 2009, period. "We have to go into your
account books to examine the issue. Please prepare a chart and submit us by next
hearing, so that we could interpret it," the court said. Moreover, the apex
court, which had stayed the order of power tribunal APTEL to refund Rs 3,000
crore alleged extra tariff collected by the DVC, said the rate of tariff of the
power generator would be subject to the outcome of the petition. "The rate of
tariff of DVC would be subject to the outcome of the petition," the bench said.
DVC was represented by Attorney General G E Vahanvati and Solicitor General
Gopal Subramanium. The Appellate Tribunal for Electricity had held that DVC had
collected in excess of the price determined by power regulator CERC and directed
it to refund the ''extra tariff'' collected between April, 2006, and March,
2010, in an order passed on May 10, 2010. According to the DVC petition, Central
Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) had not taken into account the
additional cost inputs of the company while fixing the tariff for December,
2006. The additional input costs, according to the DVC, included a revision of
salaries of DVC employees as per the Sixth Pay Commission, payment of gratuity
and pension, money spent on enhancing generating units and opening of new
blocks. When the tariff fixed by the CERC was first challenged by the DVC before
APTEL on November, 2006, it had directed the CERC to determine it afresh.
Following this, CERC had again decided the tariff on August, 2009, and,
rejecting DVC''s claims, directed it to refund Rs 3,000 crore to consumers. When
DVC took up the matter before APTEL again, the tribunal ruled in favour of the
CERC and directed the corporation to refund the amount. According to the DVC,
the CERC had allowed only an amount of Rs 3,777 crore against its total claim of
Rs 8,483 crore for that period -- leaving a huge gap of Rs 4,706 crore. It
stated that more than 55 per cent of its claim was disallowed by the CERC.
Challenging this, DVC requested the Supreme Court to "allow its appeal and set
aside the judgment passed by APTEL and remit the matter back to CERC for
redetermination of tariff as per its direction." PTI

An IAS officer of the 1985 batch, Biswas has been sent back to his parent Kerala cadre

July 21: The power ministry has removed Damodar Valley Corporation chairman Subrato Biswas from office.
An IAS officer of the 1985 batch, Biswas has been sent back to his parent Kerala cadre. He will now report to the Kerala chief secretary.
A new chairman for the DVC is yet to be decided as Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde is not in Delhi.
Biswas became the DVC chairman on October 13, 2009. He was to continue in office till May 21, 2011, when his five-year central deputation tenure was scheduled to expire.
On October 20, 2009, the Central Vigilance Commission had objected to Biswas’ appointment as the mandatory clearance from the commission was not sought.
Biswas had been accused of mismanagement and alleged acts of corruption. He had ordered the shifting of the Koderma units to Ranghunathpur and was allegedly indifferent to the problems at the Chandrapura thermal power station.
The DVC is also unlikely to supply 2,500MW power to the Commonwealth Games. Only the 500MW Mejia unit is scheduled to come up in August. “All the other projects will be commissioned after October 2010,” said Padamjit Singh, chairman of the All India Power Engineers’ Federation.
A couple of months back, Biswas was summoned by the speaker of the Jharkhand assembly and asked to submit a report on the DVC’s development work in the state.
Representatives of various parties had criticised the arrogance of the DVC management. According to sources in the power ministry, they had forwarded a draft chargesheet against Biswas to the department of personnel and training in May, recommending his repatriation to Kerala.
Earlier, the Central Vigilance Commission had imposed a “minor penalty” on Biswas in connection with the ash evacuation work of the Mejia thermal power station.
This is the second time the power ministry had recommended the repatriation of Biswas. The first transfer proposal was made in November 2009, which reached the PMO in December

NTPC to hire 1,300 people by the next fiscal

New Delhi: The country's largest power producer NTPC today said it plans to recruit about 1,300 people in the next fiscal to support the company's ambitious target of becoming a 50,000-MW company by 2012.
The company, which hired 1,050 people in the previous financial year (2008-09), has so far added a headcount of 900 and would hike this figure to 1,100 by the end of the fiscal.
"Since we are expanding and we want to become a 50,000 MW company by 2012 we need 1,200-1,300 people in the next financial year (2010-11)," Director HR NTPC R C Shrivastava told PTI.
"For every 4,000 MW we need around 1,600 people both executive and non-executive," Shrivastava said adding that the 1,300 target is on very conservative side, it may be higher.

Strike cripples workers at DVC Mejia plant

Strike cripples workers at DVC Mejia plant

Sunday, 25 Oct 2009

It is reported that the ongoing strike by workers employed by contractors at Damodar Valley Corporation’s Mejia plant brought down the generation at the plant to one third on Friday.

Located in Bankura district of West Bengal the Mejia plant is DVC’s largest thermal power plant. The drop in generation is expected to create 100 MW shortfall in peak power supply in the State. West Bengal gets a share of the generation by the central power utility.

Sources in DVC said that out of a total capacity of 1340 MW by six units, the Mejia plant, located approximately 150 km from Kolkata, was producing approximately 360 MW from two units on Friday. The generation was hit as the agitating unions were not allowing coal supplies to the plant.

The strike has been called by CITU and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh led unions demanding wages higher than the State Government prescribed minimum wages for industrial workers. The INTUC led union, which initially supported the strike, opted out of it at a later stage.

According to sources, DVC has outsourced various operations of the power plant including coal handling, electrical maintenance, instrumentation maintenance, cleaning and so on to a number of contractors. As part of the contract agreement, DVC ensures that the workers employed by these contractors are paid the stipulated minimum wage of INR 126 a day plus medical, house rent and other allowances.

A source told Business Line that “The CITU and BMS led unions at Mejia are demanding a minimum wage of INR 187 a day in line with payments made to some temporary workers in our old units in Jharkhand. However, while such temporary workers are not offered any allowances, the unions at Mejia want the allowances too adding that efforts to resolve the differences through dialogue failed at a series of meetings mediated by the State Labour Commissioner’s office.”

DVC has reportedly made it clear that it would follow the State prescribed norms in fixing minimum wages for such workers employed by the contractors.

A DVC source said that “We may force contractors to offer higher wages provided the State Government amends its laws accordingly.”

(Sourced from Business Line)

Technology boost for power

Technology boost for power

22 Oct 2009, 0219 hrs IST, ET Bureau

It’s welcome that there is improved focus — albeit belated — on new technology and cutting-edge equipment in a policy-deficit sector like power, characterised by routine revenue leakage in the key area of distribution.

Reports say that power producers NTPC and DVC would soon invite bids for a series of super-critical boilers and turbines, for revved up thermal efficiency. The idea, of course, is to boost power output, with little or no increase in the fuel input.

It would improve our energy efficiency levels, reduce the relative price of power and very substantially increase energy availability too. An added bonus of increased diffusion of super-critical boilers in thermal plants would be the sustained decrease, in relative terms, of emissions of green-house gases. Super-critical boilers do increase thermal efficiency by up to a third or more, as compared to sub-critical boilers.

It implies added power generation, but without proportionate increase in, say, coal combustion. It means being concurrently energy efficient and environment friendly. So there’s no contradiction involved in aiming to shore up thermal efficiency levels and in the process tackling climate change, given the power-investment backlog. The NTPC and DVC bids require that domestic manufacturing of the boilers be made mandatory, in stages. We need to fastforward adoption of clean-coal technologies.

It is notable that the technology adoption in power is taking place over a wide range. The Centre, for example, has identified five new sites for new nuclear-power plants, to be built with Russian, French and US collaboration. The state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation has chalked out long-term plans for a quantum jump in generation capacity.

And the Centre reportedly plans to have an ambitious 20,000 mw of solar power capacity — or about a fifth of today’s conventional generation capacity — by 2020. What’s needed is concrete policy action and follow through, to actualise the plans. In tandem, what’s surely warranted is to clamp down on theft and reckless give-aways in the state power sector. Otherwise, the moribund finances of power utilities would short-circuit modernisation.

CIL to buy equipment worth $2 bn in 5 years

CIL to buy equipment worth $2 bn in 5 years

17 Oct 2009, 0102 hrs IST, ET Bureau

KOLKATA: Coal India (CIL) will procure spares and equipment worth $2 billion from the overseas market in the next five years. This will mainly be procured to beef up production levels by 175 million tonne, and take up at least 134 greenfield mining projects.

Confirming the development, CIL chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya said: “We intend to increase production capacity by as much as 35 mt every year over the next five years. This will require sourcing equipment from overseas — equipment that is not manufactured in India. The cumulative value is expected to be about $2 billion over the next five years.”

Going by the target, CIL is slated to touch a total production level of 570 mt by the end of the next five years. “To achieve this, we have to source high capacity open cast mining equipment, including high capacity dumpers, shovels and dredgers for mines. All these are not manufactured in the domestic market. A part of the procurement will also go into replacing existing old equipment,” said a senior CIL official.

Incidentally, CIL’s effort to take over the ailing Durgapur-based Mining and Allied Machineries Corporation (MAMC) is yet to fructify. The proposal was taken up to start manufacturing underground mining equipment at the plant since there are no established makers as on date.

Once, MAMC’s debts are waived by the Centre, CIL and its partners, including Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), will be able to manufacture open cast mining equipment, too. “It will help substitute imported equipment for both open cast as well as underground mines. However, we are still waiting for the government’s clearance,” said NC Jha, director technical at CIL.

“Since MAMC is a BIFR case, the joint takeover proposal by BEML, CIL and DVC to take over the firm will now have to be passed by the high court, following which needs to be cleared by the Cabinet. BEML intends to take 48% in the company, while CIL and DVC will take 26% each,” said a CIL official.

Incidentally, MAMC owed the West Bengal government about Rs 100 crore, which has already been waived. Central dues stand at about Rs 1,200 crore, and will require a Cabinet clearance.

NTPC and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) are likely to float on Friday global tenders worth over Rs 25,000 crore

NTPC may float Rs 25,000cr tender

16 Oct 2009, 0333 hrs IST, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: State-owned power generation companies NTPC and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) are likely to float on Friday global tenders worth over Rs 25,000 crore for sourcing supercritical power equipment for five power plants, a power ministry official told ET.

The proposal, which has already been approved by the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure, requires the successful bidders to also gradually shift production to India, setting in motion the government’s initiative to encourage domestic manufacturing of the energy efficient power equipment. The equipment would kick-start five power projects across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, setting in motion investment of about Rs 40,000 crore.

According to the official, who refused to be named, the power utilities would jointly invite international competitive bids (ICB) for bulk supply of super-critical power equipment for 11 units of 660 MW each. The tender

terms have a clause making domestic manufacturing mandatory in stages.

So far five companies—BHEL, L&T-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) combine, Alstom-Bharat Forge, Toshiba-JSW and Italian company Ansaldo Caldie—have expressed their interest in participating in the bulk tender for supercritical equipment. The government, however, expects participation from even Chinese, Russian and a few East European companies.

Out of the 11 supercritical units, nine would be used by NTPC for its projects while two will be used by DVC. It has been decided that NTPC would invite two separate international competitive bids (ICB)—one for all boilers and the second for steam turbine generator (STG) islands—instead of a single common boiler-turbine-generator (BTG) bulk package.