We welcome article submissions from experts in the areas of coal, mining,
shipping, etc.
To Submit your article please click here.
|
|
|
Friday, 03 August 12
INDIA - LIGHTS OUT! - SALVA
 The Indian power sector hit global headlines this week for all the wrong reasons. Firstly, on Monday, over 350 million people lost power across northern India, including Delhi. The following day, the lights went out again, but this time over 600 million people in 20 of India’s 28 states were affected, with the outages covering range of 3000 kilometers in the northern and eastern regions. The authorities’ response has ranged from blaming states for overdrawing from the grid, to appointing a committee to inquire into the causes of the blackout. However, these latest outages are merely symptomatic of much larger problems in India’s power sector, which has been short of power for years.
In Salva’s view, the problem does not lie within the generation sector – but with its upstream (coal supply and transportation) and downstream (transmission and distribution) counterparts. Since the generation sector was deregulated in FY03-04 to enable private participation, installed generation capacity has almost doubled, growing by 92GW or 85%, at a CAGR of 10.8%. The vast majority of this new capacity is coal-fired, which added another 18GW of new capacity in FY11-12 and a further 4.2GW in Q1’12.
However, this new power generation capacity is not being fully utilised, with plant load factors for coal declining from 79.2% in H1’11 to 75.8% in H1’12 and 72% most recently in June. Over 4.3TWh of coal-fired generation was lost in June alone due to low coal supply with a further 1.4TWh lost because of transmission constraints and unplanned outages. Given these figures, clearly thermal coal supply remains a problem. While domestic coal production has increased in 2012, it has languished in recent years, growing at around 1% (5Mt) between 2008-11, which pales in comparison against annual coal-fired power capacity growth of over 10%. Even when production is strong, which it has been in early 2012 (by Indian standards), transportation of coal remains highly problematic. Indian Railways has not been able to procure wagons in time to boost availability sufficiently. This has resulted in coal shortages at power plants and growth in coal mine stockpiles. Transport capacity remains severely constrained as capacity addition has languished at the altar of populism. Passenger traffic shares the same infrastructure as freight, causing freight such as coal to be given a lower priority.
The Electricity Act of 2003 freed up the generation sector, but the same reforms haven’t yet percolated to the transmission and distribution sectors, which are suffering from the same bottlenecks that existed prior to 2003. Transmission capacity is not being developed at the same pace as generation capacity, while distribution reforms remain a pipe dream. As domestic coal production has not kept pace with demand, power producers have used much costlier imported coal to generate electricity. However, India’s tariff framework is still lagging behind, so the State Electricity Boards require ever increasing financial support from state owned banks and financial institutions. Tariff reform is an immediate requirement. Only that will facilitate the sector’s much needed investment.
What are the implications if this is not done now?
Indian cities are accustomed to power cuts. However, increasing prosperity has increased electricity demand and, coupled with the weak monsoon this year, has caused power demand to spike. Agricultural states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab have increasingly overdrawn power from the grids to feed the agricultural sector (which ironically is not metered as power is free for farmers) and to meet residential demand. The agricultural sector is still dependent upon the monsoon as the irrigation network is not widespread, and the weak monsoon has resulted in farmers pumping groundwater onto their fields. Generally electricity demand is low during the monsoon months (June-September) as the rains reduce temperatures. However, the rains have been weak and hence residential power demand has remained strong. This has been further exacerbated with the additional demand from the agricultural sector. State power distribution companies have not planned in advance to buy additional electricity and have overdrawn power from the grid without additional generation being supplied. This has destabilised the grid and caused it to fail.
The impact of the electricity shortages have been felt by the public at large, with a few incidents of people protesting on the road. However, it hasn’t erupted into widespread unrest - thankfully.
The implications of not carrying out reforms in the transmission and distribution sector are now apparent. Lack of adequate investment in the transmission sector will hobble the impressive generation capacity that has been developed. Lack of commercial reforms in the power distribution sector will not provide the returns or even cover the basic cost of generation. The power sector is already sick and if reforms are not carried out with the seriousness required, India will suffer further setbacks.
Source: Salva
If you believe an article violates your rights or the rights of others, please contact us.
|
|
Saturday, 07 July 12
BALTIC INDEX UP ON STRONG CAPE, PANAMAX RATES - VISTAAR
COALspot.com - This week all the segments were firmed up with BDI up by 15.23 pct (up by 153 points) closing at 1,157 points.
The cape index also ...
Saturday, 07 July 12
DRY BULK MARKET NOT ABLE TO FIND SOLID GROUND SAY EXPERTS - NIKOS ROUSSANOGLOU, HELLENIC SHIPPING
With the second half of each, traditionally looking the most active one, especially in terms of newbuildings being delivered, it's highly unlikely ...
Thursday, 05 July 12
GOVT GETS READY FOR $1.8B SUIT - THE JAKARTA POST
The Jakarta Post, one of the leading Indonesian English new papers reported that, several ministries and the Attorney General’s Office held a ...
Thursday, 05 July 12
DRY BULK MARKET MOVES FURTHER UP THE HILL - NIKOS ROUSSANOGLOU, HELLENIC SHIPPING
The dry bulk market has kept its growth momentum by the middle of the week, as the BDI (Baltic Dry Index) rose by an additional 40 points to 1,103 p ...
Thursday, 05 July 12
BUMI ACHIEVES HIGHER SELLING PRICE IN FIRST QUARTER
COALspot.com - PT Bumi Resources Tbk (BUMI), Indonesia's largest coal producer and exporter, has successfully maintained a higher sales margin, des ...
|
|
|
Showing 4666 to 4670 news of total 6871 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
- Chettinad Cement Corporation Ltd - India
- Therma Luzon, Inc, Philippines
- Malabar Cements Ltd - India
- Oldendorff Carriers - Singapore
- Vijayanagar Sugar Pvt Ltd - India
- Agrawal Coal Company - India
- Gujarat Mineral Development Corp Ltd - India
- Goldman Sachs - Singapore
- Orica Mining Services - Indonesia
- Posco Energy - South Korea
- Wilmar Investment Holdings
- Central Electricity Authority - India
- Rio Tinto Coal - Australia
- Bhatia International Limited - India
- Ambuja Cements Ltd - India
- Coalindo Energy - Indonesia
- Timah Investasi Mineral - Indoneisa
- Thiess Contractors Indonesia
- SMC Global Power, Philippines
- GVK Power & Infra Limited - India
- Thai Mozambique Logistica
- Cigading International Bulk Terminal - Indonesia
- Parliament of New Zealand
- The State Trading Corporation of India Ltd
- Videocon Industries ltd - India
- Savvy Resources Ltd - HongKong
- Vedanta Resources Plc - India
- Aboitiz Power Corporation - Philippines
- Bhoruka Overseas - Indonesia
- Sree Jayajothi Cements Limited - India
- Globalindo Alam Lestari - Indonesia
- Aditya Birla Group - India
- The Treasury - Australian Government
- Economic Council, Georgia
- ASAPP Information Group - India
- Parry Sugars Refinery, India
- Borneo Indobara - Indonesia
- Indian Energy Exchange, India
- TNB Fuel Sdn Bhd - Malaysia
- Asia Pacific Energy Resources Ventures Inc, Philippines
- VISA Power Limited - India
- Energy Link Ltd, New Zealand
- London Commodity Brokers - England
- Uttam Galva Steels Limited - India
- The University of Queensland
- Makarim & Taira - Indonesia
- PTC India Limited - India
- PetroVietnam Power Coal Import and Supply Company
- Energy Development Corp, Philippines
- Mercator Lines Limited - India
- Kideco Jaya Agung - Indonesia
- Bukit Asam (Persero) Tbk - Indonesia
- Global Coal Blending Company Limited - Australia
- SN Aboitiz Power Inc, Philippines
- Commonwealth Bank - Australia
- Minerals Council of Australia
- Asmin Koalindo Tuhup - Indonesia
- Madhucon Powers Ltd - India
- Cement Manufacturers Association - India
- Metalloyd Limited - United Kingdom
- Antam Resourcindo - Indonesia
- Kobexindo Tractors - Indoneisa
- New Zealand Coal & Carbon
- Power Finance Corporation Ltd., India
- Jindal Steel & Power Ltd - India
- Maheswari Brothers Coal Limited - India
- Indian Oil Corporation Limited
- Renaissance Capital - South Africa
- Bayan Resources Tbk. - Indonesia
- Edison Trading Spa - Italy
- Attock Cement Pakistan Limited
- Mjunction Services Limited - India
- White Energy Company Limited
- Trasteel International SA, Italy
- Karbindo Abesyapradhi - Indoneisa
- Alfred C Toepfer International GmbH - Germany
- Jaiprakash Power Ventures ltd
- Coastal Gujarat Power Limited - India
- Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd - Australia
- OPG Power Generation Pvt Ltd - India
- Bukit Makmur.PT - Indonesia
- Tata Chemicals Ltd - India
- Indika Energy - Indonesia
- Meralco Power Generation, Philippines
- Riau Bara Harum - Indonesia
- South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporation
- Straits Asia Resources Limited - Singapore
- Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Japan
- Iligan Light & Power Inc, Philippines
- Mintek Dendrill Indonesia
- Bhushan Steel Limited - India
- Bharathi Cement Corporation - India
- Indogreen Group - Indonesia
- Kepco SPC Power Corporation, Philippines
- Ceylon Electricity Board - Sri Lanka
- Sindya Power Generating Company Private Ltd
- Eastern Coal Council - USA
- Mercuria Energy - Indonesia
- Wood Mackenzie - Singapore
- Bulk Trading Sa - Switzerland
- Simpson Spence & Young - Indonesia
- Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand
- MS Steel International - UAE
- Kapuas Tunggal Persada - Indonesia
- Bahari Cakrawala Sebuku - Indonesia
- Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd
- Heidelberg Cement - Germany
- Tamil Nadu electricity Board
- Kartika Selabumi Mining - Indonesia
- IEA Clean Coal Centre - UK
- Larsen & Toubro Limited - India
- Global Business Power Corporation, Philippines
- CIMB Investment Bank - Malaysia
- Vizag Seaport Private Limited - India
- Marubeni Corporation - India
- Miang Besar Coal Terminal - Indonesia
- Pendopo Energi Batubara - Indonesia
- Kaltim Prima Coal - Indonesia
- Directorate General of MIneral and Coal - Indonesia
- Siam City Cement - Thailand
- Latin American Coal - Colombia
- Baramulti Group, Indonesia
- Altura Mining Limited, Indonesia
- Eastern Energy - Thailand
- Anglo American - United Kingdom
- PNOC Exploration Corporation - Philippines
- Semirara Mining and Power Corporation, Philippines
- LBH Netherlands Bv - Netherlands
- Merrill Lynch Commodities Europe
- Manunggal Multi Energi - Indonesia
- Coal and Oil Company - UAE
- Sarangani Energy Corporation, Philippines
- Australian Coal Association
- Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission - India
- Bangladesh Power Developement Board
- Truba Alam Manunggal Engineering.Tbk - Indonesia
- Sakthi Sugars Limited - India
- India Bulls Power Limited - India
- Banpu Public Company Limited - Thailand
- Ministry of Mines - Canada
- Petrochimia International Co. Ltd.- Taiwan
- IHS Mccloskey Coal Group - USA
- Lanco Infratech Ltd - India
- Georgia Ports Authority, United States
- Barasentosa Lestari - Indonesia
- Offshore Bulk Terminal Pte Ltd, Singapore
- McConnell Dowell - Australia
- Chamber of Mines of South Africa
- GMR Energy Limited - India
- Directorate Of Revenue Intelligence - India
- Pipit Mutiara Jaya. PT, Indonesia
- Gujarat Sidhee Cement - India
- Ind-Barath Power Infra Limited - India
- Kalimantan Lumbung Energi - Indonesia
- Sojitz Corporation - Japan
- Port Waratah Coal Services - Australia
- Siam City Cement PLC, Thailand
- Singapore Mercantile Exchange
- International Coal Ventures Pvt Ltd - India
- Africa Commodities Group - South Africa
- GN Power Mariveles Coal Plant, Philippines
- Planning Commission, India
- Indonesian Coal Mining Association
- Electricity Authority, New Zealand
- Carbofer General Trading SA - India
- Karaikal Port Pvt Ltd - India
- Global Green Power PLC Corporation, Philippines
- Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission - India
- Sinarmas Energy and Mining - Indonesia
- PowerSource Philippines DevCo
- Independent Power Producers Association of India
- Ministry of Transport, Egypt
- Formosa Plastics Group - Taiwan
- Binh Thuan Hamico - Vietnam
- Romanian Commodities Exchange
- Ministry of Finance - Indonesia
- Holcim Trading Pte Ltd - Singapore
- Dalmia Cement Bharat India
- Indo Tambangraya Megah - Indonesia
- Orica Australia Pty. Ltd.
- Sical Logistics Limited - India
- SMG Consultants - Indonesia
- Meenaskhi Energy Private Limited - India
- Xindia Steels Limited - India
- Samtan Co., Ltd - South Korea
- Bukit Baiduri Energy - Indonesia
- Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited - India
- TeaM Sual Corporation - Philippines
- Intertek Mineral Services - Indonesia
- AsiaOL BioFuels Corp., Philippines
- Grasim Industreis Ltd - India
- GAC Shipping (India) Pvt Ltd
- Price Waterhouse Coopers - Russia
- Medco Energi Mining Internasional
- ICICI Bank Limited - India
- Star Paper Mills Limited - India
- Deloitte Consulting - India
- Australian Commodity Traders Exchange
- Dr Ramakrishna Prasad Power Pvt Ltd - India
- Billiton Holdings Pty Ltd - Australia
- San Jose City I Power Corp, Philippines
- Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd, - India
- Interocean Group of Companies - India
- Jorong Barutama Greston.PT - Indonesia
- Filglen & Citicon Mining (HK) Ltd - Hong Kong
- Petron Corporation, Philippines
- Kumho Petrochemical, South Korea
- Kohat Cement Company Ltd. - Pakistan
- CNBM International Corporation - China
- Central Java Power - Indonesia
- Krishnapatnam Port Company Ltd. - India
- Semirara Mining Corp, Philippines
- Standard Chartered Bank - UAE
- European Bulk Services B.V. - Netherlands
- Essar Steel Hazira Ltd - India
- Dong Bac Coal Mineral Investment Coporation - Vietnam
- Salva Resources Pvt Ltd - India
|
| |
| |
|
