“We do not have smart grid technology in the country. We are just lifting power and transmitting it. But now we have to think beyond that. Therefore, we are exploring possibilities of setting up a smart grid on a pilot basis,” PowerGrid chairman and managing director R N Nayak said.

“We plan to convene a meeting in December with all the stakeholders, including manufacturers/suppliers of equipment, companies involved in the transmission and distribution, developers of green technology and other related industries, to chalk out a plan for a pilot. We want to build a smart city that can be a model for power distribution and consumption.”

The country has one of the largest T&D losses in the world, with almost 30 per cent of the installed capacity of 1,82,345 mw being lost in transmission. The transmission network of the country is 2,65,000 circuit km (ckm).

Nayak also hinted at signing of MoUs with stakeholders for developing the project. “We are in the process of identifying a city where the population is small and people are educated. We want all types of renewable energy sources, including solar, wind, etc to set up there.

The plan is to have smart meters, electric vehicles and other such systems that will enable reduce T&D losses and access of power to rural areas and reliability and quality of power to urban areas,” he said.

He also emphasised the need to develop reactors indigenously. “It is time we came up with our own technologies to develop reactors indigenously.” Last September, India Smart Grid Task Force was set up under the aegis of the Union Power Ministry to serve as government’s focal point for activities related to smart grid.
Agencies

PGCIL’s network would connect Bhachau, Morbi, Lalpar and Halvad at Gujarat’s Kutch district, a company official said. The company has already commissioned transmission system for two units of the Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project in Gujarat. These are part of the transmission system associated with Mundra UMPP, being implemented by Power Grid at an estimated cost of about Rs 5,000 crore, the official said.

The 4,000 Mw Mundra project, being developed by Tata Power, would be the first UMPP to start power generation in the country. The line is ready to evacuate power from two units of Mundra UMPP (2X800 MW) in normal condition and more than 1,200 MW in the contingency.

The system commissioned consists of high capacity Mundra-Bachau-Ranchodpura 400 kV Double circuit line along with 630 MVA Bachau 400/220 kV sub-station. These are part of the transmission system associated with Mundra UMPP, being implemented by Power Grid at an estimated cost of about Rs 5,000 core.

About 770 circuit kilometres transmission line has been commissioned in challenging conditions like passing through tough terrains in creek area of Arabian Sea, excessive water logging due to heavy rains, etc.

PGCIL has planned a capital investment of Rs 55,000 crore for the development of inter-state transmission system during 11th Plan of which an investment of more than Rs 42,000 crore has already been made till September 2011.
Agencies

“The power distribution and generation capacity has increased since the past few years. Therefore, we feel there is a need for inter-state grid connectivity. We are in talks with a few states to work out a joint venture model to enable them to lay transmission networks,” a PGCIL official said.

He further pointed out that “many states have taken initiatives in augmenting the power capacity. We feel there will be a need for an efficient power transmission network to evacuate the power and connect it to the grid”.

Power Grid is in talks with states including Orissa, Sikkim, Assam,  The corporation has already adopted the joint venture model on public-private partnership (PPP) basis with eight companies for inter-state connectivity.

“We have experience of the joint venture model. We are looking at similar arrangements in the future as well. But we have not yet finalised any plans in this regards. It is currently at a very nascent stage,” the official added.

The corporation has entered into joint venture agreements with Powerlinks Transmission, Parbati Koldam Transmission Company, Torrent Power Grid,  Energy Efficiency Services, Teesta Valley Power Transmission, Northeastern Transmission Company and National High Power Test Laboratory.
Agencies

India’s largest transmission utility with planned capital expenditure of 180 billion rupees for fiscal 2011/2012, has spent 49 billion rupees so far till October, Nayak said. The New Delhi-based firm is gearing up awarding contracts for its transmission projects in the second-half of the current fiscal to meet its capex guideline, officials said.

“We have awarded contracts worth about 80 billion rupees during the first half (of the fiscal) and have approvals for another 20 billion rupees. We will do 150 billion rupees more in the next five months,” said TK Wali, executive director.  Last fiscal, the firm had awarded contracts worth 200 billion rupees, he added.

Asia’s third largest economy faces frequent power cuts and is upgrading its infrastructure at a rapid pace. Power Grid, being the central transmission utility, has the mandate to expand country’s transmission capacity to keep pace with additions in the power generation sector.

Shares in the firm, which is at present valued by the market at US $9.2 billion, gained 2 per cent in 2011 so far, bucking the negative trend in the benchmark index, which dropped 17 percent during the same period. The firm, that is owned 30.6 percent by public shareholders, expects to fund its capex plan by 30 percent internal accruals and rest by debt, said R. T. Agarwal, director finance.

“We have raised about 5,000 crores (50 billion rupees) from local bonds, 2,000 crores (20 billion rupees) from external commercial borrowings and plans to raise about 5,000 crores (50 billion rupees) via local bonds,” Agarwal added.

The firm with the network of 150,000 towers in India has leased 800 of its towers in the states of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir and has floated tenders for leasing-out 30,000 additional towers this fiscal, Chairman Nayak said.

Power Grid has been short listed for two transmission line projects in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka by the respective state utilities for carrying power from two independent power generation projects developed by Reliance Power and IL&FS group, Nayak said.

“We will place our financial bids soon,” he said, but declined to share the financials of the project.

On Saturday, the state-run transmission utility had reported better-than-expected, or 9 per cent increase in its September quarter net profit to 7.09 billion rupees on net sales of 22.64 billion rupees.

The central transmission utility intends to go global as an investor and developer of the transmission system. As a beginning, PowerGrid Corporation has proposed to form a joint venture (JV) in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka for the setting up of an associated transmission lines to tranmit power within the respective countries from the proposed power project planned by India’s largest power generator NTPC. It entails an investment of Rs 1,500 crore.
Agencies

“The line is ready to evacuate power from two units of Mundra UMPP (2X800 Mw) in normal condition and more than 1,200 Mw in the contingency from today onwards,” Power Grid said in a statement. The transmission system was commissioned on Thursday. According to the statement, the system commissioned consists of high capacity Mundra-Bachau-Ranchodpura 400 kV double circuit line along with 630 MVA Bachau 400/220 kV sub-station.

These are part of the transmission system associated with Mundra UMPP, being implemented by Power Grid at an estimated cost of about Rs 5,000 crore, it added. “About 770 circuit kilometer transmission line has been commissioned in challenging conditions like passing through tough terrains in creek area of Arabian Sea… Excessive water logging due to heavy rains, etc,” the statement said.

The first unit of Tata Power is expected to be commissioned by end of December this year.
Agencies

His appointment would be for a period of five years starting from the day of taking charge on or after September 1, or till the time of superannuation, whichever is earliest. “Nayak has over 33 years of work experience in the power sector. He has worked for more than 20 years at PGCIL and has handled functions like engineering, corporate quality assurance and inspection…,” the firm said in a statement.

Prior to joining PGCIL in 1991, he had worked for around 7 years with NTPC apart from having a stint with SAIL. He served as PGCIL’s Director (Operations) since 2009. According to the statement, Nayak has been instrumental in introducing many new technologies in the Indian power sector such as EMS/SCADA projects, ±800kV HVDC and 1200kV UHVAC, which are in various stages of implementation. He holds an M Tech (Electrical) degree from IIT Kharagpur.

Chaturvedi served as PGCIL Chairman and Managing Director of PGCIL from August 1, 2008. PGCIL had 80 transmission projects in various stages of implementation at the end of March 31, 2011, according to its website.
Agencies

Further, the Final Dividend on Equity Shares, if declared by the Members at the Annual General Meeting to be held on September 19, 2011 will be paid/ dispatched on October 07, 2011.

Yields on 10-year ‘AAA’ rated corporate bonds issued by public sector units currently stand at around 9.45 per cent. Last week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had raised the repo rate by 50 basis points (bps), which was higher than market expectations of a 25-bps rise. After the announcement, yields on the 10-year benchmark government security rose by around 15 bps. The yields had softened to 8.29 per cent before RBI’s rate rise policy from 8.46 per cent in May.

While Power Finance Corporation issued bonds at 9.36 per cent before the policy announcement, funds turned costlier for Rural Electrification Corporation, which had to offer a coupon rate of 9.48 per cent after the policy announcement. IL&FS also issued 10-year bonds at 9.68 per cent after the policy announcement last week.

The difference between yields of corporate bonds and government securities of the same maturity was compressed by five-10 bps after RBI’s rate rise. “Spreads reduced on lower investor appetite, as people expect rates to increase further,” said a bond dealer with a domestic brokerage.

To fight inflation, RBI has increased the repo rate by 125 bps in the current financial year. Currently, the repo rate is eight per cent. RBI is slated to announce its mid-quarter review on September 16. “If rate rises continue, yields may continue to stay high, but the feeling is that we are closer to the peak,” said the dealer.
Agencies

The company will raise Rs 10,000 crore through bonds during the current financial year. So far, it has raised about Rs 2,000 crore. “We will raise the balance in about three tranches during the year,” he said. He said the company is also working on another follow-on public offer in 2016-17, but declined to divulge the quantum of the FPO and fund size to be raised. He expressed concern over the delay in execution of power projects particularly ultra mega power projects (UMPPs) being developed in various parts of the country. “There are also concerns about fuel supplies including from Indonesia for the power projects,” he said.
Agencies

K K Sinha, Professor and MDP chair at Bimtech said: “This MoU will cover exchange of intellectual resource and infrastructure for management development programmes for leadership development, strategic management and competency development of working and middle level executives.”

The faculty for MDP modules will be drawn from faculty members from Bimtech, as well as experts from industry including Power Grid, government and academicians in respective fields. Power grid executives will be nominated to various executive educational programmes (both long term and short term) offered by Bimtech like its PhD and other post graduate programmes.

The company, in a press statement, said it will also utilize the expertise of the faculty of Bimtech, in dealing with various challenges faced by it in the form of consultancy projects. Both Bimtech and Power Grid will collaborate in research activities too.

Faculty of Bimtech will also document case studies for Power grid. These case studies will be used by the organisation for its internal training programmes.
Business Standard