The Government is gearing up to prepare a time-bound action plan for development of offshore wind energy especially in the coastal states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

At a meeting of the sub-committee for preparation of the draft policy guidelines for development of offshore wing energy projects of the Ministry for New and Renewable Energy, Tamil Nadu Electricity Board chairman, Rajeev Ranjan, who is also chairman of the sub-committee, said it was high time that policy guidelines are formulated to attract investment into the sector.

The States have agreed to implement price-pooling mechanism of coal, the Coal Minister, Mr Sriprakash Jaiswal, told newspersons. “A major hurdle has been sorted.

The Indian Wind Power Association has sought a common wind energy policy in all States.

At its annual general meeting here recently, the association, through a resolution, appealed to the Union Ministry of Power to ensure that all State utilities adopt a uniform policy for wind energy, especially for wheeling and banking charges. The funds for installing new transmission lines and sub-stations should be granted from the Clean Energy Fund. Incentives should be granted for those who go in for taller machines, replacing old turbines.

Attempts to prune the branches and to cut a huge tree in front of a building on Venkatasamy Road in R.S. Puram on Wednesday triggered opposition by green activists.

A group of green activists gathered in front of the building and tried to stop the tree cutting. This led to tense moments and commotion for some time. After the owner of the building stated that he was cutting the tree only with prior permission, the green activists left the place deciding to take up the matter with the Revenue Divisional Officer for granting permission for tree cutting without inspection of the trees by the members of the Tree Protection Committee.

Mumbai Shortage of domestic coal, coupled with high cost of imports and delays in receiving approvals, are pushing Indian power producers to build plants overseas or bid for them.

India's largest private power producer Tata Power is now evaluating Vietnam, Indonesia, Turkey, Africa and West Asia to build coal, gas and hydropower projects. “For a large corporation like Tata Power, if it finds its growth stunted in India, it needs to look out,” S Ramakrishnan, executive director, Tata Power told FE in a recent interview.

The wind energy sector in Tamil Nadu has objected to the State power utility blaming the system of banking of energy for its financial loss and planning to scrap the system.

While the power scenario in Assam remains one of the worst in the country, the state’s Rs 2000-crore tea industry has been the worst sufferer in the absence of any other major power-intensive indus

First Bench directed the Chief Engineer, TNEB, to file an affidavit detailing the power position

Pointing out that the supply of electricity in the State, particularly Chennai, is not up to the mark, the Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Chief Engineer (Commercial), TNEB, to file an affidavit detailing the power position and the steps taken to rectify the low voltage problem in and around Chennai.

Introduction of pre-paid power supply in Manipur’s core area has resulted in tremendous improvement in billing and collection besides reducing the load demand by more than 50 per cent.

Guwahati: Assam is set to undertake the second phase of power sector reforms, which is expected to see major initiatives to boost generation and greater efforts for privatisation.

“In 2005 we started the first phase of reforms which saw restructuring of the then power behemoth Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB).” “Now we are poised to undertake the second phase of the reforms where focus would on increasing generation and improving transmission and distribution,” Minister for Power, Commerce and Industries Pradyut Bordoloi said.