Adani Power plans to set up 1,320 MW plant in M.P.

Source : http://www.blonnet.com

After more than doubling its planned power production capacities since its IPO last year, Adani Power Ltd (APL), a subsidiary of the $5-billion Adani Group, is planning to set up a 1,320 MW coal-based thermal power plant in Madhya Pradesh.
At the time of its IPO, APL had planned to produce only 6,600 MW that included 4,620 MW at Mundra, Gujarat, and 1,980 MW at Tiroda, Maharashtra. Later, it included 1,320 MW at Kawai, Rajasthan, and 2,640 MW at Dahej, and an additional 1,320 MW at Tiroda, to ramp up total capacities to 11,880 MW, involving investments of nearly Rs 59,400 crore.
Its latest foray in Madhya Pradesh, with 2x660 MW, will increase the capacities further to 13,120 MW, involving investments to the tune of nearly Rs 65,600 crore (at the rate of nearly Rs 5 crore per MW), according to a senior company official.

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Bajaj Hindusthan to ventures into thermal power generation

Bajaj Hindusthan to ventures into thermal power generation: "Bajaj Hindusthan, the country’s biggest sugar producer is planning to venture into thermal power generation with an investment of Rs. 60,000 million to generate 1200 MW of power. The company has identified Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra to set up plants based on indigenous coal. Its current captive power plant stands at 430 MW and with growing demand, it plans to have a bigger presence in the power sector. It also plans to venture into hydel power and scouting for suitable opportunities."

Thermal Power transforming Vidarbha into Pollution hotspot

Coal based thermal power plants to pollute Vidarbha region

(For full article see http://vidarbhatimes.blogspot.com/2010/02/coal-based-thermal-power-plants-to.html)

In next 10 to 20 years, the Vidarbha will be the most polluted region of the country because the coal based 49 thermal power plants are coming up in the region and as per the study, coal based power plants are considered biggest sources of air pollution and emit huge quantity of Fly Ash, toxic metals like Mercury, radio activity, Sulphur di oxide and Carbon di Oxide, a green house gas a major contributor to Global warming , which means that coal based power plants can pollute entire region and contribute to global warming..........Read full article at Vidarbha Times blog

List of Ultra Mega Power Projects in India

List of Ultra Mega Power Projects in India

(Source: http://emergingyouths.com)

Ultra Mega Power projects (UMPP) are Nine coal based thermal power projects which were planned by government of India.The capacity of each project is 4000 Megawatts or above.The coast of each project is approximately Rs.16,000 crore.The Ministry of Power has already awarded 3 UMPPs to Reliance power and 1 UMPP to Tata Power.Both the companies has started work at these four projects.These are the total 9 UMPP Special purpose vehicles in India.

Ultra Mega Power Projects in India

(1) Sasan Power Limited (Sasan, Madhya Pradesh),awarded to Reliance Power.

(2) Coastal Gujarat Power Limited (Mundra, Gujarat),awarded to Tata Power.

(3) Coastal Karnataka Power Limited (Tadri, Karnataka)

(4) Coastal Andhra Power Limited (Krishnapatnam, A.P.),awarded to Reliance Power.

(5) Coastal Tamil Nadu Power Limited (Cheyyur, T.N.)

(6) Coastal Maharashtra Power Limited (Girye, Maharastra)

(7) Orissa Integrated Power Limited (Sundergarh district, Orissa)

(8) Jharkhand Integrated Power Limited (Tilaiya, Jharkhand),awarded to Reliance Power.

(9) Akaltara Power Limited (Aklatara, Chattisgarh)

47 power plants in Vidarbha

47 power plants in Vidarbha !
Down to Earth (subscription)
Maharashtra's target is to generate 33000 MW from 47 new thermal power
plants. This is a measure for its power-starved western part; some of it
would go to ...
<http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20100228&filename=news&sec_id=4&sid=3>

Towards Sustainable Green Energy

Printed from Renewables can ensure energy security 15 Feb 2010, 0619 hrs IST, G M Pillai, Peak oil has been around for a while now. Energy specialists in India, specially those working in the renewable energy space, are now talking the same about coal: not quite peak coal but an increasing likelihood that coal will not always be available to run power plants. Will this mean that development as we know will come to a halt, given that energy production and consumption are regarded internationally as a major cause for climate change? For India, a net importer of fossil fuel, including gas, and increasingly of coal, energy security is a compelling reason to go green, G M Pillai, director general, World Institute of Sustainable Energy (WISE) believes. Development cannot stop and it needs energy but the conventional sources of energy , oil and coal are fast running out. So, renewables are the only option. And, they are also green. So the primary objective of going for renewable energy, notes Mr Pillai, should be to secure the country’s growing energy needs. Solar energy can be a source for our growing energy needs, but what advancements have been made to store it? Storage technology has been developed to the level that it can be stored for six-seven hours. In states such as Maharashtra, where peak power demand is at night, the stored power can be used. Which means that the grid will have to have a mix of hydro, biomass , solar and a proper dispatch. The hybrid format grid allows using existing thermal power with an RE source. There is already one such at Singrauli in UP. The transition has begun, but the obsession with ultra mega power projects continues. And these projects are being sanctioned without assessing the security of fuel supply for the next 30 years. And, that is where issues over peak coal arise, as Indonesia, a major exporter , gradually caps these. This will mean that India would have to compete with the US and China, for global coal from the one big exporter, Australia. Will we be able to compete with international buyers? The worrying aspect is that some power companies have taken a short-term view, says Mr Pillai. They expect to achieve payback in five years on their projects, hence they are unconcerned about fuel supply for the plant for the rest of its life. How can renewable energy impact our lives? Concentrated solar thermal (CST) units, for instance, can be retrofitted on low-rise buildings — those with up to five floors. Wind mills on buildings to power street lights in a large housing complex too can be considered. Of course, renewables will require that we change the way we do business . While renewables could power households , what about industry and metros? Powering industry using renewables remains a big question. But, smaller, distributed units can reduce the burden on the grid for housing and even agricultural needs. Industry requires those large power plants. “We have 2.13 lakh sq miles of desert in Gujarat and Rajasthan, half of which the government owns. This region can power the country’s industry and metros, with huge solar power plants being set up there. As water is required to cool turbines and that would pose a challenge in the desert, the solution lies in using air cooling systems.” Nevada, in the US, has attempted solar thermal generation. It began with 40MW generation, which is now at 394 MW and can go to 500 MW. The use of deserts to locate such power generation units is best exemplified by the International Renewable Energy Agency, located in Abu Dhabi. The west Asian countries are taking measures with peak oil looming large. Renewables will change the power scene. Over 5-6 years, low-rise buildings could have their own solar-thermal units to take care of at least some of the power needs of the inhabitants there. Software technology firms that have large terraces could be among the first to install such units. Or malls, where the structures are not usually very tall. What else will change through a widespread deployment of renewable energy? Urban planning is one. Tall buildings of over 100 metres cannot be powered by renewables. So, ideas about city development will have to change. What about financing these projects? Mr Pillai pointed out Maharashtra’s four paise per kilowatt hour green cess on conventional power production for industrial and commercial units generates about Rs 100 crore annually. It has been converted into seed money for the Urja ankur nidhi a corpus used solely for the development of renewable energy. The government of Karnataka has also announced a similar cess.

MoEF's Green Signal - Doomsday for Alphonso !

Green signal for power project in middle of alphonso orchards
(http://www.livemint.com/2010/02/14233811/Green-signal-for-power-project.html)

Posted: Sun, Feb 14 2010. 11:38 PM IST

The move has potentially put not just a key export but also the livelihood of local farmers atrisk, say activists Padmaparna Ghosh and Utpal Bhaskar
New Delhi: The Union government has approved the setting up of a controversial power generation project in the middle of a prime growing area for India’s world-famous alphonso mangoes, potentially putting not just a key export but also the livelihood of local farmers at risk.
The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has given the green signal to JSW Energy (Ratnagiri) Ltd, or JSWEL, a Jindal South West (JSW) group company, to commission a 1,200MW coal-based power plant at Jaigad in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district. The clearance has come despite a court order asking the ministry to study the impact of the project in more detail.
Environmental activists said fly ash produced by the plant will affect agriculture, and a local farmers’ collective has vowed to appeal against the clearance. While issuing the clearance, the ministry put a year-long moratorium on JSWEL’s proposal to add an additional 3,200MW capacity to the power-generation plant. It has also imposed some conditions on the plant—such as taking adequate mitigation measures to desulphurize emissions, providing dense plantation as a buffer and 100% utilization of the fly ash it generates. “Even if there are negative impacts, the impacts are restricted within (a) 5km radius of the project site which harbour poor quality orchards which are a few in number, suggesting that there will be no reduction in mango production,” the site report reviewed by Mint stated.
But Maitree Dasgupta, a campaigner on climate and energy with international activist group Greenpeace, doesn’t agree.
“Fly ash from power plants is known to affect agriculture. For instance, in Parli, Beed district, Maharashtra, we have seen that sugar cane production is getting affected. Power plants make ponds for fly ash outside, which can contaminate surrounding areas later,” Dasgupta said. Questions emailed to a JSW group spokesperson on 8 February were not answered.
With an average annual shortage of 5,000MW, Maharashtra is India’s largest power-deficit state. The shortage is likely to grow, with demand projected to rise by 7-10% every year. The JSWEL project first received environmental clearance in May 2007, which was upheld by the National Environment Appellate Authority a year later.
But the Delhi high court, acting on a petition filed by local farmers, stayed the commissioning of power generating units in September. It asked the ministry to study the effects of the power plant on cultivation and reassess its environmental clearance. The ministry had sent a team to the site for a review. Its report, listed in the minutes of the meeting of an expert appraisal committee on thermal power projects, suggested that alphonso mangoes are more tolerant to high levels of sulphur dioxide than previously believed.
In July 2008, the ministry had also asked state-funded agricultural university Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli (KKVD), to carry out a four-year impact study on alphonso mangoes. The project would be allowed to expand only after that, it said. The university was asked to monitor ambient air quality, the marine and estuarine environment, plant health parameters and fisheries during the entire operative life of the plant, with periodic evaluation by an independent panel of experts nominated by the ministry.
“We will appeal against this clearance again,” said Vivek Bhide, a local mango farmer and president of the Ratnagiri Zilla Jagruk Manch, a farmers’ collective. “This (the clearance) doesn’t seem to follow the high court order, which said to carefully analyse all studies. But the KKVD study is yet to be completed,” he said. This is not the first electricity generation project that has threatened alphonso farmers in Maharashtra. An ambitious power project at Girye had to be dropped due to protests by local mango growers.
India exports around 13,000 tonnes of alphonso mangoes every year. According to the Maharashtra State Agricultural Marketing Board, mango cultivation in Ratnagiri is across 62,836 ha that yield production of 115,939 tonnes yearly.
padmaparna.g@livemint.com

Adnani's Mundra unit gets CDM certification !

Posted On Thursday, January 21, 2010
United News of India
Mumbai, Jan 21:
The first two 660 MW unit of the Adnani Power (APL) in Mundra in Gujarat has been certified as Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Project by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The unit is the first one in the world to get CDM certification for super-critical technology based power project authorised under Kyoto Protocol to register such projects after elaborate and stringent scrutiny.
APL is setting up power plants to the tune of 9,240 MW, including 4,620 MW at Mundra in Gujarat, 3,300 MW at Tiroda in Maharashtra and 1,320 MW at Kawai in Rajasthan. Nearly 85 per cent of the project was based on environment friendly super-critical technology. The first two super-critical units of 660 MW each at Mundra, which are expected to be commissioned in 2010-11, have received this distinction.
Currently in India, sub-critical coal fired power generation is the commonly used technology with no super-critical or advanced super-critical plants in operation. The efficiency of super-critical coal fired power plant is quite high compared to sub-critical coal fired power plants. Enhanced plant efficiency reduces emissions of CO2 and all other pollutants by consuming less fuel per unit of electricity generated. The efficiency improvements and thereby reduction in CO2 Green House Gas (GHG) using super-critical technology leads to registration of such Thermal Power Project as Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project and earning of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) through the CDM under the Kyoto Protocol.
APL in a release here said ''A complex and grueling process of project evaluation involves Host Country Approval (HCA) from Ministry of Environment and Forest in India, evaluation by Independent Validator of the Project Concept Note and Project Design Document, followed by review of Independent Validator's report by Committee Members of UNFCCC with final queries being raised by UNFCCC committee members which needs to be replied by the company with supporting documentation. During the 51st Executive Board of meeting of UNFCCC held at Copenhagen, Denmark between November 30 and December four, 2009, the committee members had reviewed the replies and various documents submitted by APL and approved this project as CDM project.
As per the calculations made in line with the guidelines of the UNFCCC under the ACM013 methodology applicable to this project, Mundra 2x660 MW TPP will be eligible to generate 18,39,560 CER per annum for 10 years from the first year of generation.
Adnani Group chairman Gautam Adnani commenting on the achievement said the company remained committed to Clean Development in its pursuit to be one of the largest private sector power generation companies.