Indian Power Sector: June 2010

Monday, June 28, 2010

What's hot in Indian power sector?

Power trading is "ON" in India. Companies such as Jindal Power and states like Chhattisgar, J&K and MP have sold power on short term basis through the grid.
India is the 6th largest consumer of power. That is roughly 4 % of global consumption.
Solar India is shining bright:- Karnataka Power Corp. has set up 3 MW solar power plant. This is just the begining.
Private power players have cropped up in Hydel sector. KSK of Karnataka has bagged 2000MW contract from Arunachal govt., ousting....guess? ( NHPC !!)
What happens in multibillion dollar procurements in Indian power sector ? NTPC's bulk order of boilers is yet to be finalised as L&T was decalred invalid in round#1. NTPC plans to add 32000 MW in 12th plan.
Chinese power sector manufacturers have hit the first road block as Power Grid has put up a condition that they must have set up manufacturing facility in India !
Guess which neighbor of India is being helped this time? Its Afghanista ! Their engineers first batch completed Transformer training in Ahmedabad.
How much Indian metros consume? A back of envelop calculation goes like this:- Assuming 7 metros like Delhi ( @ 5000MW each) , our metros only need 35000 MW power. Imagine how much is left for rest of the country !
Boom boom time. Thats it for power sector in India. You know who is coming up with mega projects? Reliance,Aditya Birla and Hirananadanis. Jobseekers, be ready !
Many a slip between the cup and the lip. Dismal Indian nuke power generation plan is again in limbo after initial hopes generated after Indo-US civil nuke deal. This time Ministry of Environment has returned 4 new proposals of NPCIL.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Power Sector Snippets

Large hydro potential is available in India. ( In north and north-east of the country). 25 GW is already used, 20 GW is under implementation and further 66 GW is still available.

Purnea and Gorakhpur are Indias biggest FACTS projects.

HTSC ( High Temperature Super Conduction) is stioll to come to India.

At present only 3 % of the total volume of electricity handled by grid ( = 15000 GWh) is traded in India. Power trading is growing @ 6 % per annum.

Power trading improves capacity utilisation, reduces unit costs, raises farm and industrial output and cuts down need for new projects.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Some issues in Indian power sector

Generation Capacity addition during last 2 years has been far below the targets. Target for 2007 -08 was 16,000 MW , actual aws only 9,000MW. Target for 2008-09 was 11,000 MW , actual was 3,000 MW. We are slipping in the year 2009-10 also. Anybody held responsible?
T&D revenue losses are increasing unabated. The loss is huge. Every year Rs.50,000 crore are lost in T&D.
Untapped potential in Small Hydropwer is 80%. Most of this is in North-east.
Gas based power plants operate on best PLF. India has adequate gas reserves, yet the contribution of Gas based plants in total generating capacity is only 10 %

How to construct EHV grid subsatation?

To evacuate power from generating station we need first a Step Up substation since the generation voltage is in the range of 11 KV only. This needs to be stepped up to 400 KV or 220 KV or 132 KV.
Then at the load centres it is again stepped down to 33 KV or 11 KV before final conversion into 440 V.
1.We need suiatble land for subsation.
2.Based upon load growth, operation speed, busbar arrangement, and fauld clearance , the layout and design is prepared.
3. Civil work starts with foundation of structures, equipements and cable trenches. Control room,quarters, fencing, road water supply , drainage and sewerage is contsructed thereafter.
4.Then power transformers, isolators,CTs, PTs, LAs, Control and relay panels, battery chargers abttery sets and shunt capacitors are installed.
5.After planning and laying the control wiring, testing is carried out.
Structures:- ( 220 KV ) all Black steel/ GI
AT1, AT8 for Column
AB 1, AB2 for Beam
AO, AO1 for isolators.
AO3 for CT/PT
AO4 for LA.
Busbars:-
ACSR conductors or pipes strung by tension disc insulators at the ends having tension of 750 kg. They are protected by earth wire at an angle of 30.
Various arrangements of busbars are given in the pictures below.
Earthing:-
Depending upon earth resistivity mesh isdesigned and layed. 200 mm MS rod or 50x10mm MS flat is trenched in 300 mm deep trenches. Mesh is connected to the ground with 28mm dia 3 m long earth electrode. Transformer tanks and neutarl needs separate earth electrodes. Final earth resistance should be < 0.2 ohms.
Safe IR :-
33 KV ( 1000), 132 KV ( 1400 ), 220 KV ( 6000 ).

Small Note on Acounting and Finance

While given a problem of preparing Profit & Loss Account and Balance Sheet from Trial Balance , follwoing tips were given by a friend:-

P & L Account :- What we have done during the year ? Credit ( in ) and Debit ( out ) is part of it.

Balance Sheet :- What is the statement at the end of year? It has two parts- Liability ( share holder ; which has 3 parts: capital, Reserves and Debt , Long Term Loans and Current Liabilty ; which includes short term debt , debtors and Provisions ) and Assets ( Fixed Assesta and Capital assets ; which includes Base, Liquid investment, receivables and Stock/inventory , NCA which means Long Term Investments Loans and Advances)

Expenses are of 3 types:- Cost of Material, Cost of Labour and Admin or Marketing. Further they can be booked as direct expenses( raw material, labour, wages, rent Maint of P&M ) and indirect expenses ( Directors Remun. , clerk's salary, Insurance, Bldg Maint, Heat & Power, Canteen, Welfare, Motor, Prof Charges, Postage and Telegr., Books and stationary, Packing etc )

Net Sales - expenses = PBDIT / EBITDA

PBDIT - DEP - Int = PBT

Op. Profit = Op. Income - Expenses - Dep.

PBT - taxes = PAT ( it has two parts:- Share Holdera and Reserves )

Sales - ST - Discounts = Net Sales

Now the question is , which part of Trial Balance is to be booked under which head?
Well some go into Trading ( raw material, Labour, Insurances, Sales, Discounts ), Some P&L ( salaries, Bldg Maint, Lab, Canteen, Rent, ST ) , some Balance Sheet ( Capital equity, Creditors, Taxation , P & L Account, Xerox Machine, Motor car) .