New Delhi – The Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd. (SECI), under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), announces the appointment of Shri Akash Tripathi, IAS (MP:1998), as Managing Director. His appointment has been approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) in the rank and pay of Additional Secretary to the Government of India.

SECI’s leadership structure is now formalised with Shri Santosh Sarangi, IAS, Secretary, MNRE, continuing as Chairman. This governance framework provides for institutional oversight and dedicated executive direction across SECI’s expanding portfolio.

Shri Santosh Sarangi, IAS, Chairman, SECI, and Secretary, MNRE, stated, “SECI operates at the core of India’s renewable energy implementation. Shri Tripathi’s appointment brings dedicated leadership for execution at scale, tighter institutional coordination, and delivery across emerging priorities like green hydrogen, energy storage, and green energy projects. This dual structure reflects the Ministry’s approach to enablement and accountability.”

SECI, a Navratna Central Public Sector Enterprise under MNRE is the designated agency for implementing India’s national renewable energy initiatives, including competitive bidding for solar, wind, hybrid, energy storage, offshore wind, and green hydrogen projects etc.

In Short – Azure Power appoints a new Chairman to lead its Board of Directors, signaling a strategic move to steer the company towards its renewable energy goals. The appointment underscores Azure Power’s commitment to effective governance and sustainable growth in the renewable energy sector. With the new leadership, the company is poised to navigate emerging challenges and capitalize on opportunities, reaffirming its position as a key player in the global transition towards clean energy.

In Details – Azure Power appoints a new Chairman to lead its Board of Directors, signaling a strategic move to steer the company towards its renewable energy goals. The appointment underscores Azure Power’s commitment to effective governance and sustainable growth in the renewable energy sector. With the new leadership, the company is poised to navigate emerging challenges and capitalize on opportunities, reaffirming its position as a key player in the global transition towards clean energy.

Mr. Mehra is a veteran in the banking industry with over 35 years of experience across several capacities including overseeing businesses across India and multiple South Asian geographies. In his last role at RBL Bank, Mr. Mehra was responsible for the Wholesale business of the Bank. Prior to joining RBL Bank, Mr. Mehra was Country Executive India and as well as Southeast Asia/India Cluster Head of Corporate and Institutional Banking at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). He holds a bachelor’s degree from Delhi University and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad.

Speaking on this, Mr. Sunil Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, Azure Power, said, “We are pleased to have Brijesh join our Board as the Chairman. We believe that his rich leadership experience, excellent insights about the business environment and deep understanding of financial and capital markets will be valuable assets for the Company’s transformation journey.”

Commenting on the appointment, Mr. Brijesh Mehra said, “I am delighted to join the Azure Power team. The Indian renewable energy space is thriving, and Azure Power is well situated to capture its growth potential. I look forward to working with the other members of the Board to lead Azure Power through its next phase of growth.”

About Azure Power

Azure Power develops, constructs and operates renewable energy projects to provide innovative solutions to its customers’ needs. Since 2009, Azure Power has grown rapidly to become a leader in accelerating India’s energy transition.

For more information about Azure Power, visit: www.azurepower.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “likely,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “believes” and similar expressions are used to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and beliefs and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the statements in this press release. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof, and the Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

]]> https://www.eqmagpro.com/mr-pranav-mehta-chairman-at-nsefi-global-solar-council-in-live-conversation/ Sat, 29 Aug 2020 05:53:34 +0000 https://www.eqmagpro.com/?p=205548 Warm Greetings !!!

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New Delhi: In a bid to provide more services to the passengers and its emphasis on zero emission, the Indian Railways will complete the work of doubling and tripling of the 17,000 km of tracks and also complete the electrification of its entire network by 2024, an official said on Wednesday.

Railway Board Chairman V.K. Yadav said, “Indian Railways has a network of 64,000 km rail track. Out of which 96 per cent of the traffic is dealt by the 34,000 km rail tracks.”

“The 34,000 km track which caters to 96 per cent of the traffic has about 17,000 km of single line. So we are planning to double the rest by 2024,” Yadav said.

He said, when the number of the tracks will improve, the punctuality and the services will also improve.

Yadav further said that the national transporter will achieve its target of upgrading the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah tracks for 160 kmph by December 2024.

Emphasizing on infrastructure, the Chairman said, “Currently railways operates over 22,000 trains daily, out of which 9,000 are freight and 13,000 passenger trains. So our focus is also on creating infrastructure and to provide more services to the passengers. Thus by 2024, we will roll out more train services, including providing 150 trains to the private operators.”

Stressing on the need of zero emission, the Chairman said that the national transporter will go green by 2024 as its entire network will be electrified.

To a question over the railways agreement with US-based General Electric to produce 1,000 diesel locomotives, Yadav said, “the agreement with GE will go as per the agreement as we will use the diesel locomotives for emergency services.”

He also said the railways shelved out over Rs 30,000 crore for fuel expenses, and by going electric, a major chunk of the fuel cost will be saved.

He also said that the railways is planning to tap on solar power and it will be self reliant in solar power by 2030.

Yadav said the railways has identified its land pool, which can be used for solar power generation.

He said about 50,000 hectare of land is available with railways which is fit for the solar power generation and railways requires about 5 Giga Watt of power for its usage.

“So by 2030, we will generate 5 GW of solar power and in next financial year we will be able to achieve 1,000 MW of solar power target,” he said.

The railways will adopt the solar power generation in a phased manner as the 50,000 hectare land pool is able to generate 20 GW of power.

He also said that as there are limitations with solar power, where the power is generated only during day.

“We are in talks with states for power banking engagement, where the surplus power will be shared with the states during the day and in night it can use their power,” Yadav said.

(Anand Singh can be contacted at Anand.s@ians.in)

Source: IANS

New Delhi: Sukhbir Singh Sandhu on Monday took over as chairman of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). According to an official statement, he is an IAS officer of 1988 batch of Uttarakhand cadre and has held important positions in the Central government and state governments of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

Prior to his current assignment, Sandhu was Additional Secretary in the Department of Higher Education, Government of India, where he looked after Technical Education.

He has vast experience in the field of state roads, infrastructure development, PPP projects, finance, urban development, environment, health and family welfare, tourism, revenue administration, rural development, power, new and renewable energy, information technology, industries and science and technology.

Source: ANI

UCO Bank on Sunday declared Yashovardhan Birla, the Director of Birla Surya Ltd, as a willful defaulter after the company failed to repay loans of Rs 67.65 crore.

Yashovardhan Birla is also the Chairman of the Yash Birla Group.

In a public notice which also carried a photo of Yashovardhan Birla, UCO Bank said the account was declared a non-performing asset (NPA) on June 3, 2019.

“The Birla Surya Limited was sanctioned with credit limit of Rs 100 crore only with fund-based facilities for the purpose of manufacturing multi crystalline solar photovoltaic cells from our flagship corporate branch, Mafatlal Centre, Nariman Point, Mumbai. The present balance outstanding is Rs 67.65 crore plus unapplied interest from the date on NPA,” the notice said.

The bank further said that the borrower didn’t repay the dues despite several notices served by the Kolkata-based lender.

Interestingly, UCO Bank was founded in 1943 under the aegis of industrialist G.D. Birla, the brother of Yashovardhan Birla’s great grandfather Rameshwar Das Birla.

Source: IANS

Khurshed Daruvala, chairman of S&W, told Vikas Srivastava in an interview that although the company did not focus on timing the market, the general election results had worked in its favour. Edited excerpts:

Sterling & Wilson Solar, the demerged entity of Sterling & Wilson (S&W) Group, plans to come out with the first IPO of Shapoorji Pallonji Group companies in the September quarter of 2019. Khurshed Daruvala, chairman of S&W, told Vikas Srivastava in an interview that although the company did not focus on timing the market, the general election results had worked in its favour. Edited excerpts:

Do you think the period is ripe for equity raising in the market, especially when the broad macro index is not doing well and other renewable players have shelved their plans?

From our perspective, we believe it is the right time for our solar business to get listed. We have not been focused on timing the market and had been planning our IPO (initial public offering) not knowing what the election results would be. Since the results have been favourable for the market, it has worked out well for us from a timing perspective. We are waiting for the Sebi clearance, once that comes we will start the process of IPO. We are hopeful the IPO will come in the July-September quarter of 2019.

In terms of comparison with independent power producers (IPP) who shelved their plans, the returns on equity are incomparable. In nine months to December 2018, our RoE (return on equity) has been over 100%, while for an IPP the average return was not more than 14%. Also, there is a lot of cash requirement for an IPP, if they have to grow to, say, Rs 2,000-crore business, which is not the case with us. Our market share as of December 2018 was 4.6%, which is more than double compared to the nearest competitor. If we exclude China, our market share was 8.6% in the solar EPC market.

As we are aware, the company plans to raise Rs 4,500 crore from the IPO. Where do you plan to invest the proceeds?
Our purpose is to strengthen the solar business balance sheet. After the demerger, the banks were more confident of lending to our solar business especially in global market. From the Rs 4,500 crore we will raise, Rs 1,800 crore will be invested back into the non-solar companies so they payback the loans of the solar companies. This will create a high net worth solar balance sheet for our solar business with no debt. The EPC business does not require cash, and we will be able to take large global projects. Just the demerger itself got us the job of $250 million in Montenegro, which would not have come otherwise.

As a major part of your revenue has been coming from abroad, going ahead with challenges in Indian market, would that ratio increase in favour of foreign projects? Policywise, I do not see much challenge in India. The land and transmission lines will continue to be a challenge just as in any other country. But, payment delays from discoms will be a big factor differentiating the two markets. Another major issue is the higher borrowing cost. My EPC price to the Abu Dhabi client is much higher compared to any Indian client. But, the Abu Dhabi client sells the power at Rs 1.75 per unit, while the Indian client despite much lower capex sells at Rs 2.75 per unit, largely due to higher borrowing cost. In our case, the majority of our work is balance of plant (BoP), for which value of market in India is small, though our margins are same, I can do more work abroad. So, we will definitely not let go the Indian market. It will be a large captive market giving us good base in future as well, though the contribution will come down as we increase our business abroad.

Are there any plans to enter manufacturing segment for solar, since there are a lot of incentives plus safeguard duty to save Indian interests?

We do not have any plans of entering the manufacturing segment. The reason being very tight margins in the space. Also, if we ask the question to ourselves, do we have the competitive edge? The answer is no! In the EPC space, we are mostly number one or number two in most of the fields we operate in. Our model has been an asset light EPC model where we are technology-agnostic and can offer our customers the best technology available at that point of time, at a competitive price.

Source: financialexpress

“We aim to have a carbon-neutral new passenger car fleet in 20 years,” said Ola Kallenius, current head of Mercedes research, who is to succeed Dieter Zetsche as chairman of the Daimler group next week.

All Mercedes models will be electric or hybrids within two decades, a company spokesman said, but different approaches were possible.

“Our current focus is on battery-electric mobility. But there’s also room and need to continue to work on other solutions, for example, the fuel cell or eFuels,” Kallenius said in a statement.

“Today, no one knows for sure which drivetrain mix will best serve our customers’ needs 20 years from now.

“That’s why we encourage policy makers to pave the way for tech neutrality: Let’s fix the target, but not the means to achieve it.” Daimler says synthetic fuels produced with renewable energy must allow hybrid cars to run without CO2 emissions, but these fuels are not yet on the market.

Daimler aims to achieve a 50 percent share of sales for electric vehicles by 2030 and promises to make its European plants CO2 neutral by 2022, Kaellenius added.

German car manufacturers are taking the plunge on electric power faced with looming tougher emissions rules in the European Union from 2020, loaded with hefty financial penalties if they are breached.

Source: AFP

How would you respond to private companies’ allegation that PGCIL purposefully mismanages transmission planning so that the lines get delayed and are given to PGCIL on nomination basis?

The transmission planning process is collaborative and transparent. There is a well-established procedure of planning of transmission system, under which transmission planning is carried out by the Central Electricity Act (CEA) in association with CTU, POSOCO and other stakeholders. The technical approval of the transmission scheme is given by the Standing Committee on Power System Planning, which is convened by the CEA and is comprised of stakeholders including the CEA, CTU and POSOCO. Once the system is approved, the empowered committee convened by the CEA recommends the modalities, and based on this recommendation the power ministry decides the implementation route (through bidding or otherwise).

The transmission system planning is done on need basis, assessed taking into consideration the applications, inputs provided by state transmission utilities, operational feedback report from POSOCO and other inputs from various other stakeholders. When transmission system is planned, the required date and the timeframe for implementation are clearly mentioned. As on date, no LTA application case is pending with the CTU for planning consideration. The allegation that the CTU purposefully delays the transmission planning is absolutely incorrect. In the past three years, all the major transmission projects have been awarded only through TBCB (tariff based competitive bidding) route.

Private companies allege government bias and say a proposal to give large green energy corridor projects to PGCIL may render them non-competitive….

We are not aware of any such proposal to give any large green energy corridor project to Power Grid. This allegation is completely unfounded. In fact, the transmission systems are yet to be evolved for the new renewable energy additions. For that purpose, I understand that a committee comprising of members from renewable energy ministry, Solar Energy Corp of India, CEA and CTU has been constituted to study and evolve new transmission system based on the potential locations for renewable energy.

Have projects awarded to PGCIL been completed on time? Private companies say a lot of your projects are late, defeating the purpose of allotment on nomination basis.

This allegation is also completely baseless and devoid of any facts. Power Grid has commissioned (projects worth) more than Rs 90,000 crore in the last three financial years. Our important projects such as Green Energy Corridor-I are on schedule and being commissioned matching with generation. Similarly, for the HVDC Raigarh-Pugalur project, as on date, the progress so far is six to 12 months ahead of schedule.

Let us compare the performance in TBCB projects. Till date, 14 TBCB projects have been commissioned – three projects by Power Grid and 11 by different private companies. All our three projects were completed on time. While only two out of 11 projects by private companies have come up on time. The balance nine projects, all by private companies, have had delayed commissioning. It translates into a delay in more than 80% of the projects which are awarded to private players. Apart from the delays, one grave area of concern is that some of the projects have not taken off even years after the award. We have seen four such cases awarded to private companies during the competitive bidding regime. In two of the cases, DGEN and North Karanpura, the generation has come up but the evacuation system to be developed by the private companies under TBCB has not even taken off. It is a matter of serious concern with the potential to cause huge economic losses and impact the entire power sector value chain.

There may have been genuine reasons for the delays but to issue a blanket statement that Power Grid projects get delayed and private players come up on time is not correct and misleading.

Private players also accuse PGCIL of profiteering, saying your tariff-to-cost ratio for cost-plus projects is 17.5% but comes down to 13.5% if there is competition.

This statement is again misleading. In cost-plus, tariffs are higher in the first year, decreasing gradually every year and falling considerably from 13th year onwards due to higher depreciation rates allowed for principal repayment of loans for initial 12 years, while in the TBCB projects, the levelised tariff depends on the discounting factor. All quoted tariffs for each year are reduced to a single number using this discount rate.

For the sake of comparison, if we consider a hypothetical transmission line project, the 1st year tariff in cost-plus regime comes out approximately 16-17% of total project cost. For the same cost-plus project, if we compute the levelised tariff, it comes to around 12-13% of project cost. If we further leverage and reduce equity from 30% to 20%, the levelised tariff in cost-plus project shall further be less than 12%.

From the above calculations, it is amply clear that 1st year tariff of 17.5% in cost-plus is in no way superior to the 13% levelised tariff in TBCB regime. Over and above this, the cost-plus projects have to deal with regulatory uncertainty of returns.

If you go through the details of tariffs quoted for TBCB projects, you can notice that in a few of the projects wherein Power Grid could not participate, the tariff quoted is much higher than what it would have been in cost-plus basis. In fact, Power Grid’s participation in the TBCB route has ensured that the prices obtained are reasonable and the nation gets the infrastructureNSE 0.00 % at the right cost.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes