The All India Power Engineers’ Federation (AIPEF) has criticised the Union government’s decision to privatise electricity distribution in the eight union territories (UTs), including Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Chandigarh and Puducherry, amid the Covid-19 crisis. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said on May 16 that power distribution business in the UTs would be privatised […]
Category: Power
Power
UP: Villages with less than 15% losses to get 24-hr supply, says Energy minister
The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to provide round the clock electricity to rural areas, where aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses are below 15%. Villagers and village panchayats will be asked to join hands in reducing the losses. Energy minister Shrikant Sharma made this announcement at a meeting held at Shakti Bhawan on Monday. […]
Activists, locals oppose Kinnaur’s Kashang Hydro Power Project
Activists and locals in Kinnaur have asked the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) to not extend environment clearance to the integrated Kashang Hydro Project. Around 1,000 environmental activists from across the world and local residents have written to the ministry raising concern over the ecological damage the will be caused due to […]
India to privatise discoms in all Union Territories, explore PPP across states
India will privatize electricity distribution companies (discoms) in all its eight union territories, and explore public-private partnerships for power distribution in some states, Union power minister Raj Kumar Singh said. The Centre has informed the Union territories about the decision, Singh said at a digital interaction with power sector chief executives. Unlike discoms in states […]
Power discoms to get ₹90,000-cr liquidity fund as demand drops
The government on Wednesday announced a ₹90,000 crore liquidity injection into fund-starved electricity distribution companies (discoms) as part of a stimulus package to revive the country’s battered economy. The announcement, made by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, is one of the measures in the first tranche of a stimulus package to combat the economic disruption that […]
India up at 74th place on WEF’s global energy transition index
India has moved up two positions to rank 74th on a global ‘Energy Transition Index’ with improvements on all key parameters of economic growth, energy security and environmental sustainability, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said on Wednesday. Releasing the annual rankings, the Geneva-based international organisation for public-private cooperation said Covid-19 will compromise the transition to […]
FAC to power ministry: Is Dibang hydropower project financially viable?
New Delhi: The environment ministry’s Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) has deferred its decision on granting forest clearance to two controversial projects — the 3,097 MW Etalin Hydropower Project in Arunachal Pradesh’s Dibang Valley, and the exploration of Uranium in Telangana’s Amrabad Tiger Reserve by Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research. A FAC subcommittee report on April […]
Anil Ambani puts up Delhi power distribution businesses for sale
At least eight investors, including Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Actis LLP and Brookfield Asset Management, have showed initial interest in buying Reliance Infrastructure Ltd’s Delhi electricity distribution businesses, said three people aware of the development. The other potential investors are Greenko Energy Holdings, Enel Group, I Squared Capital, Torrent Power and […]
Rebates offered on electricity bills
The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has launched a rebate scheme of up to ₹220 for consumers who pay their electricity bills on time. The incentive to consumers comes after the power regulator found that revenue collection in the form of bill payments had witnessed a “steep fall” ever since the nationwide 21-day lockdown was […]
Haryana announces Rs10,000 rebate on fixed power charge for industries
The Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) issued a notification on Wednesday announcing flat rebate of ₹10,000 in fixed electricity charges for industrial consumers for the months of March and April. However, industry owners’ association said this was too little to make any difference and that they had demanded complete waiver of the fixed charges from […]
UPPCL PF scam: HC rejects bail pleas of ex-director, another
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Tuesday rejected the bail pleas of Sudhanshu Dwivedi and Vikas Chawla, accused in multi-crore Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd(UPPCL) provident fund (PF) scam. Dwivedi had served the corporation as its director (finance) from June 2016 to June 2019 while Chawla had allegedly received Rs 5.69 crore […]
‘No possibility of grid collapse, don’t switch off fridge, TV’: Power ministry
The union ministry of power on Saturday clarified that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for switching off lights on Sunday would not cause instability to the power grid amid concerns over a possible grid-collapse. “Some apprehensions have been expressed that this may cause instability in the grid and fluctuation in voltage which may harm electrical […]