NTPC Raigarh project: green panel recommends clearance

A Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) panel has recommended clearance for the 18-MTPA Talaipalli coal-mine project of NTPC in the Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh.

The project had come up for discussion for grant of environmental clearance in the meeting of Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) that was held recently.

“The Committee after discussions recommended the proposal for environmental clearance subject to MoEF circular dated September 9, 2011,” the MoEF said on its website.

The ministry had issued a circular in September which stated that projects awaiting environmental clearance would be eligible for consideration even if their application for forest diversion is under consideration.

NTPC had applied for environmental clearance for ensuring a production capacity of 18.72 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) from both underground and open cast operations.

The Coal Ministry had allocated the block to NTPC in 2006. One of the conditions of the allocation letter by the Coal Ministry stated that power projects (4,000 MW) based on coal from this block shall commence generation at the latest by the end of the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012).

With the development of the coal block getting inordinately delayed, the Ministry had last year issued warnings to the power major.

The warning letter also stated that some of the important milestones, including forest clearance, were pending and no serious efforts had been made by the company to develop the block

Kudgi mega project awaits Environment Ministry nod

NTPC Ltd's first ultra-mega power project (UMPP) of 4,000 MW, coming up at Kudgi in Bijapur district of Karnataka, is all set to award contracts for the first phase of 3 by 800 MW once it secures nod from the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

“The investment for the Rs 15,166-crore phase-1 project has been approved, the tenders for the project have been shortlisted. Within days, we are expecting nod from the MoEF,” Mr R. Venkateswaran, Regional Executive Director, said.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Venkateswaran said this is the first thermal plant in the South to deploy supercritical technology, and the first UMPP conceived by NTPC.

All the elements for the project have been tied up, with the Karnataka Government sanctioning 5.2 thousand million cubic ft from Almatti dam, about 18 km from the plant site. The coal for the project will be brought by rail from Mandraigarh Coal Fields of South Eastern Coalfields Ltd, about 1,700 km from the project site.

In this project, the company plans to blend imported coal procured from Goa with domestic coal. According to plans, the first unit is expected to be operational within 58 months from the date of contract and subsequent units six months thereafter

Power sector’s sustainability depends on environmental issues

Experts debate ways to bolster capacity and cut transmission loss while keeping ecological concerns in mind

Bottlenecks in the power sector threaten to slow the world’s second fastest growing major economy. India is set to miss even its lowered target of adding 62,734 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity in the 11th Five-year Plan period (2007-12).

Is there a way to bolster capacity and curtail transmission loss while keeping ecological concerns in mind? An expert panel comprising P. Uma Shankar, Union power secretary; Pramod Deo, chairman of the central electricity regulatory commission; Arup Roy Choudhury, chairman and managing director of NTPC Ltd; Shubhranshu Patnaik, senior director, energy and resources, Deloitte India; and Pawan Parikh, vice-president and head, power transmissions system, Siemens, debated ways of Providing sustainable solutions to India’s power crisis, at Mint’s Clarity Through Debate programme in New Delhi last week.

The panel agreed that the sector’s sustainability depends on environmental issues, availability of fuel and land, assured flow of revenue and innovative technology and practices. Utpal Bhaskar of Mint moderated the discussion. Edited excerpts.

What really ails the Indian power sector?

Uma Shankar: First of all, let’s look at some numbers. The peak shortage used to be 16%-plus at one point of time, now we are down to sub-10%. We used to meet peak demand of 90,000MW in 2007 and now consistently we are meeting a peak demand of 110,000MW. Second thing is, on the energy shortage side, we used to have close to 10% shortage, but now we are down to 5-6%. These two are the major developments.

It is definitely true that the targets that we set for ourselves are not going to be met in that sense. But again, if you look at energy generation, it has increased over time. In 2007, we used to generate 660 billion units and now we are close to 810-plus billion units and this year we are looking at about 850 billion units. It is true that we set for ourselves a target of 78,000MW and then revised it to 62,000MW. But it is a question of what we set for ourselves. If you want to reach tree-tops, they say, you have to aim for the stars. On the positive side, we have more than 78,000MW projects under construction. Actual commissioning we have done for more than 40,000MW as of today. This is twice we did in the 9th Plan and 10th Plan. On capacity addition, we have definitely improved.

Patnaik: The progress of the power sector in the last two-three years has been hugely creditable. The generation capacity addition has been unprecedented. The policy regulator environment has improved hugely. There is a lot of clarity around transmission, open access and competitive bidding, so all those are right things at the right place. (But) there are also certain things which have emerged probably in the last three quarters or so, creating a lot of apprehension among investors. The issues, which have not necessarily cropped up overnight, were there, which have now come to the boil. For instance, issues around distribution losses and distribution part of the network…will it be enough to pay for the capacity addition that has been planned for the future? There are issues around fuel security and resource availability for this type of capacity addition going forward. For the private sector there are concerns that can be road blocks.

Have things been satisfactory from a regulatory standpoint?

Deo: The important thing is the private sector contribution to the sector, which has increased. What gives comfort to the private sector is policies, which have been put in place. You should be able to sell the power.

Are renewables the way forward?

Deo: Not immediate… unless when you can achieve grid parity.

Land has become an emotive issue today. How important is a correct land acquisition policy?

Uma Shankar: You need lot of land in time. You believe that land is available in plenty and you probably look at far more land than required. So we tried to reassess the land requirement for different-sized projects and got the Central Electricity Authority to issue guidelines reducing land availability by 15% to 30%. Going forward we should look at even lesser requirement.

Choudhury: Land is an issue because of the density of the population. The power projects at one time were distributed state-wise and not based on availability of the fuel. Slowly we are getting to a situation where we are trying to locate projects in the fuel bearing areas as far as possible. We look at areas where there is a fallow land and not cultivated land so that you really don’t infringe upon the daily needs of the citizen of the country but you do have to set up power projects. Since we are in the huge expansion mode, looking at the country’s requirements, it is very important the stakeholders are taken along with you when you acquire the land. We are very keen that all the villages in 5km radius of our plant have 24x7 electricity so that they know from the beginning if the power project is coming into their vicinity they have power 24x7, which then makes them co-operate.

On the land issue, I think we will have to take people along, we have to look at location of the project we are looking at, and we have to look at the minimum amount of land that can be used.

How do we stand from the fuel security viewpoint? Domestic supply of coal and gas has not been able to keep pace with the demand.

Uma Shankar: As far as gas is concerned, I suppose we can only make request to the concerned ministry to help us with gas. We have been working with the ministry of coal for the requirement for the projects in current year. Initially we had an estimate of about 319 million tonnes (mt) coal for the year and with lot of effort we could increase it to about 347 mt for the year. We are further working with them to see if more could be made available. There are some issues relating to environment leading to some difficulties in increasing the production. So this is being addressed by group of ministers. We expect there would be changes, which would help coal ministry to increase the production. Other thing we see is fair amount of production being available at coal pit heads is not moving on. This is another area we are working with coal ministry.

Developers are increasingly concerned due to the sharp hike in commodity prices.

Patnaik: It’s a matter of concern. Some of the important coal-based plants were built three years back, and things have changed dramatically since then. So part of the answer may be that the bidder should be brought back into the equation. Part of the answer is that one needs to receptive to the changes happening in other jurisdiction and other countries, and that has to be evolved. Imported coal is definitely here to stay. Imported coal will form a definite part and we are already importing 25% of coal requirement annually, and it is going to go up in the future. And we have to have a policy at national level as to how to acquire assets abroad and that includes how PSUs (public sector units) bids for assets abroad, which needs to be addressed. PSU will need to be brought into the equation, which is key to India’s own security.

We have also seen that while there is enough imported coal available, power procurers are not willing to buy the costly power.

Choudhury: As far as fuel is required, it is food for us. You have to manage coal. I don’t think so it is a major issue today. Yes, there are problems once in a while here and there, but we should be able to get the amount of coal you required for the capacity addition that we are planning. Now a question arises do we have domestic coal or should we go for imported coal. Imported coal is two-and-half times costlier than our own coal and it is going to have an effect on tariff. How that tariff is going to be absorbed by the consumer, whether it will go as pool tariff...that is something to be decided in separate situation. As far as a commercial entity NTPC is concerned, it doesn’t make a difference to us. As far as the national position is concerned, we do have a problem.

How do you ensure meeting generation targets in the background of climate and sustainability issues?

Uma Shankar: There are more and more plants based on supercritical equipment in the current plan and in the next plan we are only going to support supercritical and that will help in bringing down emissions. Then there is a mention of increasing renewable power generation and we will be looking at more hydropower projects. Also energy conservation is a very big programme we have taken up. We are also looking at reducing energy consumption and increasing efficiency of the sector. Eight specific sectors have been identified by increasing their specific energy efficiency. It has to be multipronged strategy. If your main source of power generation is going to be coal, you cannot get away from that. You will have to see you use clean coal technology and increase the share of renewable in your basket. You should also look at other methods where you can bring down CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions.

Choudhury: There are contractual issues that the public sector faces when setting up a hydro project. I think we have to take it as a nation on a mission mode and all clarifications needs to be given across the table—public sector or any company from the private sector should not get entangled between state and centre issues and if there is a contractual issue, an action must be taken at some level where questions are not asked after five years whether you took a correct decision or a wrong decision?

What role will technology play?

Parikh: When you say sustainable solutions, the word describes it, starting from a smaller footprint, solving the land issue, requiring less coal to produce the same watt of power. One has to take care of other issues and other linkages of the whole power supply chain. In the case of efficient transmission by using HVDC technology, one can transmit power by practically saving 10% and this actually solves a lot of problem. While you have the power plants at one side of the country but the generation is far away from the users. HVDC therefore links it efficiently. I just did a back of the envelope calculation, if you actually go for a HVDC line of transmission... you can have a transmission line of which the corridor is about 84 metres, and if you compare it with the conventional 400 kV transmission, which will be running into 300 metres.

Uma Shankar: You have to look at the entire chain. In fact, generation is second step in the chain, first is coal supply. You have to have end to end solution, coal bereft of other material should be supplied to generation companies. There should be efficient generation, transmission and distribution along with the end use appliance be efficient.

Is distribution the weakest link in the sector?

Uma Shankar: Distribution is the weak and the most important link. Being the cash box, it has to become strong, healthy and vibrant, there are no two ways about it. The tariffs do not reflect the cost. There are some distribution companies which are doing very well and some are not doing well so we need to desegregate and address them differently. The ministry is trying to ensure that the tariffs reflect costs and the revenue realization is at least as much as the cost of supply.

Why are tariffs not being revised and what can the regulator do to solve the problem? The cumulative losses till 31 March 2009 are around Rs. 75,000 crore.

Deo: We are dealing with political economy of electricity, after all the whole idea of the regulatory commission in 1998 was to take the process of tariffs determination out of political purview. And the idea was to have techno-economic body, which will do it on scientific basis. The difficulty has come in the context that you expect a techno-economic body to do a very political process, after all tariff determination is being done for state- owned utility. We are not supposed to do tariff for commercial entity. We are doing it for a utility that is owned by the government. It is always difficult to increase the tariff. The law itself has given that each regulatory commission will have a formula for that. We have framed a model tariff regulation, where we tried to address these issues. The important thing is that the distribution companies have to file annual revenue requirement. It is again a debatable thing as tariff policy says we can do it suo moto. We did study of 10 state utilities and we found that tariff petition has not been filed on time.The issue now comes is what are your actual distribution losses and the whole problem is you don’t know how much agriculture is consuming.

Uma Shankar: What is important is to look at gap between the ARR (annual realized return) and ACS (average cost of service) that is how much is revenue collected per unit of supply and the cost of supply. If there is a negative gap, i.e. expenditure is more than income, then there is going to be a problem.

Deo: We don’t know how much is consumed in agriculture. You are supposed to have metering in agriculture, which for all practical purpose is not going to happen. All the new connections have to be given meters. The fact remains is very large percentage is un-metered. What we have proposed, to know the real number, we must have statistically based random sampling done and estimate the consumption.

Nine Power projects of 5,674 mw capacity get green nod - Developers now need clearance from environment ministry to start work

An environment ministry panel has cleared power projects with total proposed capacity of 5,674 mw. Developers will now need clearance from the environment ministry to start work. 

"The Expert Appraisal Committee has cleared about 9 projects in two successive meetings held on March 7-8 and on March 14-15. The total proposed capacity in these projects is about 5,674 mw," a senior environment ministry official told ET on condition of anonymity. The committee looks at the technical aspect of proposed power plants, and after critical evaluation recommends for either clearance or rejection of the projects. In the past, most projects cleared by the committee have also received clearance from the ministry. 

The projects cleared by the panel at its first meeting were DMIC Development Corporation's 1,300 mw plant in Raigarh, Adani Power's 1,320 mw plant in Rajasthan and Indiabulls' 1,350 mw plant in Amravati, Maharashtra. Clearance was also given to ARS Metals' 120 mw captive power plant in Tamil Nadu and Raymond's 7.2 mw captive power plant in Gujarat. The second meeting saw the committee clearing projects with capacity of about 1,582 mw. These included DMIC Development Corporation's 1,300 mw plant at Guna, Adani Power's 270 mw unit in Jharkhand and a 12 mw biomass project in Chattishgarh.

Panel for faster environmental nod to power projects

A Parliamentary panel has recommended that the Environment Ministry should take a more liberal approach towards issues related to power transmission projects.The recommendation is part of the 14th report on 'Transmission and Distribution Systems and Networks' (Ministry of Power) submitted in the Lok Sabha today.t was prepared by the Standing Committee on Energy, headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav.

"As laying the transmission lines has negligible impact on forests and there is no alteration of land use patterns, therefore, existing stringent procedure for according clearance need to be reviewed," the report said.The committee has recommended that the Ministry of Environment and Forests should deal with the transmission related issues more liberally so that work is not hampered for want of clearances.

According to the report, efforts should be made to ensure that power transmission projects get faster clearance, since they have minimal environmental impact."As there is no acquisition of land for construction of transmission lines, the Ministry of Environment and Forests should look into this matter so as to make the procedure streamlined and that the laying of transmission lines can progress without much hassles," it noted.

The inter-regional transmission capacity of the national grid is 20,750 Mw and is likely to increase to 32,650 Mw by end of the 11th five-year plan.

Written clearance received for 14 projects of Coal India from Ministry of Environment and Forest: Jaiswal

Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal today said his ministry has received environment clearance in writing for Coal India's 14 projects."In written we have received clearance of 14 projects of Coal India from the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF)," the minister told PTI. 

Elaborating on the project, an official with the ministry said of the 14 projects, five are from Mahanadi Coalfields Limited and three each from Eastern Coalfields Limited and Western Coalfields Limited. 

While two are from Bharat Coking Coal Limited , one is from South Eastern Coalfields Limited, he said. Another source with Coal India said these projects have received environmental clearance but with certain conditions. 

He, however, refused to specify conditions. All these projects of Coal India were awaiting environmental clearance and had come up for consideration before a meeting of Expert Appraisal Committee of MoEF last month. 

They had been held up for the last six months to one year on the environmental issue, the official said. Last month, the minister had said that the MoEF has cleared seven to eight more projects of Coal India Limited which were stranded for about a year. 

The development came close on the heels of Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh softening his stance on "no go" status for coal blocks falling in environmentally sensitive areas during the meeting of a Group of Ministers (GoM) on Coal last month. During the meeting, the minister had assured he will be "positive" toward infrastructure projects

Jairam Ramesh's rider puts brakes on Rs 170 billion ultra mega power project planned at Bedabahal in Orissa

The 17,000-crore ultra mega power project planned at Bedabahal in Orissa might not see light of the day as power ministry has not agreed to the conditions imposed by environment ministry for granting clearance to attached coalmine. 

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has granted mining approval to the project provided NTPC and Orissa Power Generation Corporation give up their respective Dulanga and Manoharpur coal blocks in the vicinity. As per data available with coal ministry, Dulanga block is expected to have 260 million tonnes of reserves, while Manoharpur and Dipside Manoharpur blocks have combined coal deposits of about 281 million tonnes. 

Bedabahal project was allocated three coal blocks in IB valley coalfield in Orissa with a total 886 million tonnes reserves in 2006. The environment ministry has denied mining permission to Meenakshi coal block with estimated 285 million tonnes of reserves while the other two have been cleared. 

A senior power ministry official said the central government was not authorised to decide upon projects of NTPC and Orissa Power Generation Corporation. "NTPC is a listed public sector company while Orissa Power Generation Corporation is controlled by the respective state government. We cannot agree to the environment ministry's conditions on their behalf. On the face of it, the proposal seems impossible to be agreed upon," he said on condition of anonymity. 

The power ministry last week received an official communication from the environment ministry on the issue and is expected to take a final call soon. The power ministry is comfortable with the second condition of the environment ministry asking for a reduction in the coalmining area of Meenakshi block. 

The condition emphasises on reduction of coalmining area by 10-15%. "We have reworked the boundaries and as per preliminary studies we have found that this would not affect the size of the ultra mega power project." 

Power Finance Corporation , the nodal agency for bidding out ultra mega power projects, had initiated international tariff-based competitive bidding for Bedabahal in June last year. PFC had last month extended bid submission deadline for Bedabahal to March 31. 

The power ministry official said companies like NTPC, Tata Power, Reliance Industries , Larsen & Toubroand Essar Power are vying the project. 

Ramesh softens stand, \'no-go\' projects to get green nod

Has Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, who till recently was known for his green ‘overdrive’, toned down? Conditional clearance to several high-profile projects, including Posco and SAIL, is a pointer to how his ministry has softened its stand.

Ahead of a meeting of the group of ministers (GoM) tomorrow, on the ‘no-go’ issue related to coal projects, 16 coal projects, that have been stuck for a year now, are set to get the environment ministry’s go-ahead.

The ministry has agreed to relax the comprehensive environment pollution index (CEPI) moratorium allowing 16 projects of Coal India — the country’s monopoly coal producer — in seven coalfields to take off. These projects had been stranded after the ministry imposed a temporary moratorium on development projects in 43 clusters labelled “critically polluted”.

Seven coalfields – Chandrapur, Korba, Dhanbad, Talcher, Singrauli, Asansol and IB Valley – fall under the CEPI moratorium. Five of the 43 clusters were already taken off the list earlier, while it lifted moratorium from another eight sites today.

Earlier this year Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked Ramesh, coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and power minister Sushilkumar Shinde to soften their stand to resolve the environment versus development dispute.

Interestingly, data shows that from August 2009 to July 2010 (under Jairam Ramesh), 501 projects of the 714 were approved and only six was rejected. The remaining projects are under consideration.

Before the cabinet reshuffle on January 20 Ramesh cleared high profile projects, including the $12 billion South Korean Posco venture in Orissa. Also, overturning the recommendations of the statutory Forest advisory Committee (FAC), he gave go-ahead to Steel Authority of India (SAIL) for diversion of 595 hectares of forest land for mining in Chiria, Jharkhand.

In addition, MoEF gave a conditional go-ahead to Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) for its six mtpa (million tonnes per annum) integrated steel plant and 1,000 Mw captive power plant in Orissa, which was stalled for months. The ministry had issued a showcause notice to the company in November 2010, asking reasons for not revoking earlier clearances.

On January 17, the Lavasa hill-city project of Ajit Gulabchand near Pune got conditional approval. The following day the ministry, in its order, had said it was prepared to consider the project subject to imposition of penalties, creation of an environmental restoration fund, formulation of a comprehensive environmental impact assessment study and the management plan.

Activists claim Ramesh never took any strong stand. “The opposition was symbolic,” one of the activists said.

Most of the projects that got cleared had riders attached to it which the companies involved had to abide by.

Gujarat's mega power project sites face environmental hurdles

Gujarat may have to be content with just one 4,000 mw ultra mega power project as the two other sites offered by the state for building such projects have not been found feasible by the power ministry due to environmental reasons. The state had identified two sites - one near Junagarh and another near Jamnagar-for setting UMPPs of 4,000 mw capacity each. 

"Junagarh is not possible, as it is near the Gir Forest area, and as far as Jamnagar is concerned, it is near the limestone mines and we have to receive permission from the Gujarat State Mining Corp ," a power ministry official said. "These two projects look unlikely....but let's see," he added. 

At present, the country's largest private power producer, Tata Power, is executing the 4,000 (800x5) mw UMPP at Mundra in the state. The first 800 mw unit of this coastal project is expected to be completed during the current 11th Plan period (2007-12). 

Power Finance Corporation (PFC), the nodal agency for these kind of projects, has already awarded four projects to the successful bidders. Reliance Power bagged three of the allotted four projects at Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Tilaiya (Jharkhand) while the Tatas won the Mundra project. 

The government, which plans to add 1,00,000 mw of electricity in the upcoming 12th Plan period (2012-17), is relying on the contribution from these UMPPs. These projects are likely to be commissioned over a period of 4-5 years from now. 

The invitation of preliminary bids for the two proposed projects at Bedabahal (Orissa) and Sarguja (Chhattisgarh) are stuck because of lack of environment clearance for the coal blocks allotted to the projects. Therefore, the power ministry would not finalise any other site in any other part of the country without obtaining the mandatory approvals from the respective authorities.

MoEF okays construction of NTPC's Nabinagar, Solapur TPPs

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has accorded environmental clearance to NTPC's joint venture project with Bihar State Electricity Board-- the 3x660 MW supercritical technology based Nabinagar TPP-- in the Aurangabad district of Bihar.

• The land requirement for the proposed plant is about 1,500 acres.
• Again, the water requirement for this plant will be 6,000 cum/hour, which will be met from Indrapuri Barrage on Sone river through pipeline over a distance of 3 km.
• Besides, a total of 11.25 MTPA of imported coal will be required to operate the proposed plant, which will be sourced from North Karanpura Coalfields of Central Coalfields Limited.
•  Total cost of the project is pegged at Rs 12,964.58 crore.
•  Alongside, the ministry has cleared NTPC`s 2x660 MW supercritical technology based Solapur thermal power plant (TPP) in Maharashtra.
• Importantly, the power major has obtained water allocation to use 4,000 cum water per hour for the plant from the Ujani reservoir through pipeline over a distance of 110 km.
• Further, NTPC has also obtained linkage for its coal requirement of 7.5 MTPA from MCL's mines, while the balance coal will be imported from Indonesia.
• It has also obtained the no-objection certificate from the Chief Wildlife Warden for the construction of the project, which is located at a distance of about 5 kms from the Madhok Bird Sanctuary.
• The cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 10,508.95 crore.

MoEF Committee holds 10th meet: Clears 4 TPPs for environment clearance

The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), under the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), has recommended four thermal power projects (TPP) for environment clearance during its meeting held over November 1-2, 2010. Alongside, the EAC has prescribed terms of reference (ToR) for 12 other projects. Some of the more important projects have been listed below:

Projects recommended for environment clearance

--Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited's (GSECL) 395 MW gas-based Expansion TPP at Dhuvaran in the Anand district of Gujarat.

--Jindal Power Limited's 1,200 MW coal-based Expansion TPP at Tamnar in the Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh.

--Chettinad Power Corporation Private Limited's 2x600 MW imported coal-based TPP in the Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu.

--Lanco Vidarbha Thermal Power Limited's 2x660 MW TPP at Mandva in the Wardha district of Maharashtra.

Projects prescribed ToR

--NTPC's 700 MW Stage-II Expansion gas-based TPP at National Capital Power Station Dadari, Uttar Pradesh.

--NTPC's 2x660 MW coal-based TPP in the Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh.

--Meenakshi Energy Private Limited's 2x660 MW Phase-III Expansion project at Thamminapatnam in the Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh.

--India Power Corporation Limited's 2x660 MW TPP in the Purba Champaran district of Bihar.

--Jindal Steel & Power Limited's 2x660 MW captive TPP in the Godda district of Jharkhand.

Jindal Power Raigad expansion proj gets in-principle green nod

The Environment Ministry has given in-principle clearance for Naveen Jindal-led Jindal Power's Rs 13,140 crore expansion project in Raigad, paving the way for engineering and construction work to resume at the plant site in Chhattisgarh after a brief hold-up. The ministry's approval is only for the first two 600-MW units under the expansion project -- which envisages capacity addition of 2,400 MW through the installation of four new 600 -MW powertrains at the Tamnar plant, in Gharghoda tehsil of Raigad district -- as coal linkages have already been granted by the Coal Ministry. 

"Environmental clearance shall be applicable for 2x600-MW only. However, at a later stage, when firm coal linkage for the third and fourth unit of 600 MW are also available, the project proponent may request the ministry for inclusion of 2x600-MW, which the ministry may consider appropriately on merit," the ministry said on its website. 

The Environment Ministry had withdrawn the preliminary environmental clearance accorded to the Tamnar power project in June, 2010, after certain quarters alleged that Jindal had not followed the Terms of Reference (TOR) stipulated by the government while carrying out studies to assess the potential impact of the project on the environment. 

As a fallout of the decision, Jindal Power was forced to halt all activities at the project site. However, following the in-principle approval accorded to the project by a panel of the Environment Ministry, the Naveen Jindal-led company can restart work on the plant, subject to fulfillment of certain conditions. 

Among the conditions stipulated by the ministry for the grant of final environmental clearance, the company has been asked to secure certain permissions from the Coal Ministry, as some of the plant area falls in coal-bearing area. 

In addition, the Environment Ministry has directed the company to finalise a vision document outlining its plans for the site within six months. 

The Environment Ministry clearance also makes it mandatory for the company to establish a three-tier green belt around the plant, as well as undertake specific schemes for the welfare of tribals affected by the project. 

The company will have to earmark Rs 53.60 crore as a one -time investment on corporate social responsibility activities and recurring expenditure on CSR initiatives shall not be "less than Rs 10.7 crore per annum till the operation of the plant", as per the ministry's clearance. 

"The proposed project is to entail an investment of Rs 13,410 crore, of which over Rs 10,000 crore debt has been tied up," the company said after getting the Environment Ministry's nod.

Mechanism on anvil to free coal blocks from no-go list

At a time when many coal blocks have come under a ‘no-go’ restriction, the government plans to tweak the approach adopted for calculating the green cover of a block-bearing region to dilute the average affected forest land.

While this measure would not reduce the impact of mining on the environment, it will help free around 25 per cent area from the no-go list.The mechanism, if adopted, could come as some relief for around two dozen companies, including NTPC, Coal India, Hindalco, Essar Power and Adani, whose coal blocks have come under the no-go shadow.

“The suggestion came up during the course of discussions on this matter in one of the meetings held in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The idea is to bring down the area covered under no-go regions,” said a senior official from the Planning Commission.

So far, the environment ministry’s approach has been to classify all those areas as “no go” which have at least 30 per cent gross forest cover (GFC) and at least 10 per cent weighted forest cover (WFC). According to the proposal, the methodology adopted for classifying the no-go areas would be tweaked to bring down the average forest density of a block-bearing region below the threshold of 30 per cent GFC. This is achieved by clubbing moderately dense areas with adjoining low-density areas. This automatically leads to exclusion of such areas from the no-go list.

Explaining the proposed mechanism, the official said if a dense no-go area with 40 per cent GFC is clubbed with an adjoining “not-so-dense” area with, say, 10 per cent GFC, the average GFC of the two areas taken together works out to 25 per cent, which is less than 30 per cent GFC threshold. This region would, thus, be freed.

“The mechanism will allow the government to free at least a fourth of the blocks currently held up owing to the no-go criterion,” the official said. Asked whether the new scheme would work, as the overall area covered under mining operations would not undergo any change, the official said, “At least some blocks would be freed from the so-called no-go list.”

The environment ministry’s categorisation specifies regions where coal mining can be permitted only after stringent forest clearances are obtained. Though this is only indicative in nature, it has worried power project developers, as several existing and upcoming mines now fall in areas barred for mining.

The no-go criterion covers nine coalfields including Singrauli, North Karanpura, Ib Valley, Mand-Raigarh, Talcher, Sohagpur, Wardha Valley, Hasdeo-Arand and West Bokaro. While Hasdeo-Arand in Chhattisgarh is totally under the no-go area, the share of no-go is 60 per cent in Mand-Raigarh, 44 per cent in Singrauli and 35 per cent in IB Valley. Overall, 203 coal blocks with reserves of over 600 million tonnes and linked power projects of over 50,000 Mw capacity have been stuck due to the criterion.

Earlier this year, PMO had undertaken joint meetings with the officials of the coal and environment ministries as the environment ministry had put almost half the regions in the nine coalfields in the no-go zone. A high-level committee under Planning Commission member B K Chaturvedi is currently trying to work out a mechanism to provide preference to companies developing the threatened projects during coal block allocation. “The Planning Commission’s view is that the criteria of 30 per cent GFC and 10 per cent WFC is not a viable and realistic proposition because the overall forest cover of India is itself 30 per cent,” the official said.

The Commission has been pitching for replacing the environment ministry’s controversial classification with a system of identifying dense and non-dense forest areas separately and not allowing any mining activity in dense areas, or allowing only underground mining at best.

The commission has also conveyed to the government its stand that even in non-dense areas mining should be carried out in phases to ensure that at any given point of time mining activity is not carried out in more than 20 per cent of the overall forested area.

The official also said that as discussions on the matter were progressing, the environment ministry was also “gradually coming to the ground that more areas need to be freed up for developmental activity”.

Land acquisition Madhya Pradesh for a power plant to be set up by Moser Baer challenged before the High Court

Land acquisition by State of Madhya Pradesh for a power plant to be set up by Moser Baer has been challenged before the High Court of Madhya Pradesh. The project has also been challenged for non-compliance with environment norms. The division bench of Chief Justice SR Alam and Justice Alok Aradhe on Tuesday issued notices to Union of India through Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Environment and Forest and State of Madhya Pradesh through Chief Secretary; Madhya Pradesh Pollution and Control Board and Moser Baer Power and Infrastructure Limited to file their replies within six weeks.

Petitioner Buddhsen Rathore has challenged the land acquisition for non-compliance with the provisions of Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act as the area comes within the 5th schedule of the Constitution of India. The petitioner has further contended that the provision of rehabilitation policy of Madhya Pradesh has also not been observed in this case. Annuppur district where the power plant is to be set up, has been declared as water scarcity district and prohibitory orders in this regard are already in force. Despite this, the petitioner alleged that the water resource has been allocated to Moser Baer ignoring the necessity of irrigation and drinking water in the district. The clearance for environment protection agency has also been taken without any public hearing, contended petitioner.

Moser Baer proposes to establish power plant in Jaithari block of Annuppur District in respect to which a Memorandum of Understanding between the State Government and Moser Baer has been signed. About 1380 acres of land has been acquired by the government for the project. US based Private Equity Fund, Blackstone has made an investment of about Rs 1,350 crore in Moser Baer for implementation of its various projects.

Green clearances for PSU projects-I: EC pending for 9 NTPC-power projects

The power major, NTPC, seems to have a tough job ahead in its bid to develop its planned power projects on time, as environment clearance (EC) proposals for nine of its projects are still pending with the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) as of October 2010. This is despite the power major having overcome the initial hurdles of obtaining the recommendations of the concerned state governments for the EC. The projects in question are:

• 2x660 MW Meja TPP in Allahahabad, Uttar Pradesh (UP).
• 2x660 MW Solapur STPP in Solapur, Maharashtra.
• 3x660 MW Nabinagar STPP in Aurangabad, Bihar.
• 2x660 MW Tanda TPP Stage-II in Ambedkar Nagar, UP.
• 2x660 MW Gadarwara STPP Stage-I in Narsinghpur, Madhya Pradesh.
• 2x660 MW Dhuvaran STPP in Khambat, Gujarat.
• 2x660 MW Mauda STPP Stage-II in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
• Revalidation of EC for 1,300 MW Stage-II of Kawas and Gandhar gas-based projects in Gujarat.

Green clearances for PSU projects-II: 13 projects awaits FC

A total of 13 coal mining, power generation and transmission projects-- all being executed by the public sector undertakings (PSU)-- await the grant of forest clearance (FC) from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) as of October 2010. Out of these, Stage-II, or final, FC is pending for two transmission projects of DVC, while nine other projects require Stage-I, or in-principle, sanction.
All these projects already have the environmental blessings of the concerned state governments. The affected projects are:

• For final FC
• --220KV D/C Dbanbad-Giridih and Mejia-Gola - Ramgarh transmission lines.
• For Stage-I FC
• --NTPC's Chatti-Bariatu coal mining project and 261 MW Rupsiabagar Khasiabara HEP.
• --NHPC's 3 Kotli Bhel HEPs and Loktak Downstream HEP.
• --DVC's 220KV D/C Gola-Ranchi transmission line.
• --THDC's 444 MW Vishnugad Pipalikoti HEP.
• --Powergrid's 400 KV D/C Mysore- Kozikode, Krishnapatnam-Gooty, Krishnapatnanm-Kurool and Parbati polling station-Amritsar transmission lines.

MoEF clears Jindal Steel, Corporate Power's expansion power projects

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has accorded environmental clearance to Jindal Steel & Power Limited`s 2x150 MW Phase-II expansion of its 300 MW middling and coal fine-based thermal power plant (TPP) at Dongamahua in the Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh. 

•  The land requirement for the expansion project will be 40 acres, which is within the mining lease area of the Gare IV/I coal mine of the company.
• The water requirement for the expansion will be 7.7 MCM/annum, which will be met from the Mahanadi river. An induced draft cooling system will be adopted for the expansion unit.
• About 4.30 MTPA of middlings and coal fines from the captive washery of Gare IV/I and Gare IV/6 coal mines will be used to meet 85% of fuel requirement for the expansion units. Balance fuel requirement will be obtained from the nearby washery. 
• Total cost of the project is pegged at Rs 1,250 crore.
• Alongside, the ministry has cleared the 2x270 MW Phase-II expansion of Corporate Power's under-construction coal-based power plant, of same capacity, at Bananagar in the Latehar district of Jharkhand.
•  The land requirement for both the phases is estimated to be 681.90 acres, which comprises of 427.36 acres single crop agricultural land, 91.58 acres revenue land and others.
• Coal requirement for the project will be 1.99 MTPA, which will be ferried from Central Coalfields Limited's North Karanpura coalfields while the required water allocation has already been made by the Jharkhand government.
• Corporate Power plans to install a bi-flue stack of 275 m for the project. 
• The cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 2,726.37 crore.

Koldam HEP faces wildlife hurdle

NTPC's first ever hydroelectric project (HEP), the 800 MW Kol Dam, is stuck on environmental issues. The Standing Committee of National Board of Wildlife has, recently, rejected NTPC's proposal to divert 124 ha of land, under the Wildlife Protection Act, as about 50000 trees will be affected by the move. 

• As a result, NTPC has been forced to call for the Ministry of Power`s (MoP) intervention, for a solution to the impasse. The power utility's worries stem for the fact that 70% of the work has been completed and Rs 3,380 crore spent on the project.        
• The company, in the past, has already dealt with issues like right bank slide and seepage problems in the main dam clay core area. This only adds to its troubles. 
• The project, located in the Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh, envisages the construction of a 163 m high main dam, with a rock and gravel fill and clay core, a 1600 m long penstock tunnel of 6.45 m diameter, surface-type powerhouse, two diversion tunnels of 900m and 920m length and Francis turbines. The project has an estimated cost schedule of Rs 4527.15 crore.

Panel seeks Jindal Power's reply on green violations - Will have to wait to go ahead with its plans of 2,400 MW plant in Chhattisgarh

Jindal Power Ltd will have to wait further to go ahead with its plans of setting up a 2,400 MW thermal power plant in Chhattisgarh with a central green panel seeking its reply on green violations at the site and objections raised by locals. A part of Jindal Group's steel and power empire owned by Congress MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal, JPL had to halt work at the Rs 13,000 crore project in Raigarh after the Environment Ministry in June withdrew terms of reference (ToRs) citing violation of green norms. 

The private producer is understood to have gone ahead with the construction of the plant as well reducing the project size without taking any of the requisite environmental clearances at the site. 

As per the ToRs awarded in March, 2009, by the environment ministry, the total area earmarked for the project was 1041 hectares, of which 350 hectares for the main plant area, 491 ha for ash dyke area, 100 ha for water reservoir and 100 ha for the staff colony. 

In September, the JPL in a review meeting of the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the ministry maintained that after the optimisation of project area, the main plant area will be 115 ha, area for ash dyke will be 241 ha instead of 491 ha while there will be no staff colony. 

But this has not gone down well with a sub-committee set up by the EAC recently which was set up to look into impact of a large number of power plants being set up in Korba, Bilaspur, Raigarh and Jangir-Champa besides the steel plant and mining activities in these areas. 

The panel led by environmentalist CR Babu has asked the project proponent whether the area for the main plant area reduced from 350 hectares to 115 hectares for 2,400 MW power plant was sufficient. The panel noted that locals have been opposing the project alleging fake documents were submitted to get the clearance to the project which would have adverse impact on nearby crop and fertility. 

It also noted that the layout for 2,400 MW power plant does not have provision for fabrication and storage area and the coal handling area will be near the steel plant at a distance of 30 km from the power plant and asked the JPL to3 furnish details regarding area required for the purpose and status of land acquisition. 

It also took dim view of the fact that the layout of 1000 MW plant had been changed while the area meant for green belt has been encroached upon by reducing it from 122 ha to 85 ha due to proposed facilities for 2400 MW Phase-II. As a result, the condition regarding 33 per cent of plant area for the green belt in case of 1,000 MW plant has not been complied, the sub-committee noted. 

It has now sought details on the action taken for implementation of plan for conservation of wildlife as well a detailed response to the issues raised during the public hearing and number of representations received regarding the project.

Mouda-I STPP: NTPC lobbies for increased Gosikhurd reservoir levels, even as work stalled

Uncertainties continue to loom over NTPC`s beleaguered 1,000 MW power venture at Mouda, as the Government of Maharashtra (GoM) is yet to provide its assent to NTPC, which is seeking an increase to the water level at the Gosikhurd reservoir, the sole source of water for the project.

• Further, a decision in this regard is unlikely to be forthcoming anytime soon, as the district administration has issued a stop-work notice, alleging violations of the rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) norms stipulated for the power plant. The authorities issued this order on May 10, 2010-- throwing a spanner in the works for the Rs 5,500 crore project, expected to produce 24 million units of electricity by 2013. 8Presently, the water level in the Gosikhurd dam is approximately 235 m. The Government of Maharashtra plans to raise the full reservoir level (FRL) to 239 m in this season, while NTPC`s pump requires around 241 m.
• Thus, draw of water from the reservoir would be difficult, as things stand now, although the state government had, earlier, conveyed its in-principle agreement to supply 100 MCM of water annually.