Indian Express 14 September 2012 4
Indian Express 14 September 2012 4
Indian Express 14 September 2012 4
TheIndian EXPRESS
www.indianexpress.com
Regulatory and policy bottlenecks hampering coal production are not yet cleared
fe Bureau OWER is a critical economic sector, given the close correlation between economic growth and electricity consumption. Mindful of this, the central government has undertaken various measures to reform the sector and attract private investment. The Centres efforts seems to have paid off, with record capacity addition achieved in the 11th FiveYear Plan. However, the state power sector, which is the sole source of revenue for the industry, continues to languish due to the lack of political will to undertake tariff reforms, and this threatens to derail the flow of investments into the power generation business. A total of 54,000 MW capacity was added during the 11th Plan, which is close to the accumulated capacity addition during the previous three Plan periods. Meanwhile, the government has envisaged capacity addition of 86,000 MW during the current 12th Plan period. But choke points have already started emerging, with the coal sector unable to step up supply to meet the fuel demand of the power sector. Growing difficulty of land acquisition for power projects is compounding the problemsof developers. The government has failed to address regulatory and policy bottle-
necks hampering growth in coal production. While deregulation of the coal sector remains a farfetched idea, even a relatively modest proposal in 2008 for appointing a regulator to supervise pricing and mining costs has not acted upon so far. Meanwhile, the gap between domestic demand and supply of coal is rising unchecked. The Planning Commission has
POWER SECTOR
suggested some bold measures like openingupthecoalsectorforprivate players to tackle the growing fuel shortage for power producers in the 12th Plan approach paper. Given the strong growth in thermal generation projected in the Twelfth Plan, the aggregate demand for coal at the end of the Twelfth Plan is likely to be between 900 and 1,000 million tonnes depending upon the pace of implementation of power capacity. As against the projected demand of 9001,000 million metric tonnes (mt) by the end of the Twelfth Plan, the domestic output is unlikely to exceed 750 mt, leaving more than 200 mt shortfall to be met from imports. Even this assumes that domestic output will be able to increase by over 200 mt from current levels, saysthePlanPaneldocument.
The paper has also suggested encouraging underground mining to avoid the problem of large-scale displacement of local population encountered in open cast mining, which has traditionally been the preferred way of coal mining in India. But promoting underground mining will require investment and useof latesttechnologybesidespolicy support from the Government.
Where possible, it may be advisable to encourage underground mining as against strip mining (open cast), technological improvement and perhaps create different regulatory costs in favour of underground miningwherefeasible,theapproachpaper says. However, mobilising adequate financial resources might not be possible without the involvementof theprivatesector. The approach paper has also suggested addressing environmental concernstoexpeditecoalexploration in unexplored areas. The paper says: Prospecting of coal in new areas must be energetically undertaken. It is planned that the exploration of all knowncoalbearingareasbecompleted during the Twelfth Plan. This will result in expansion of the inferred/proven category and thereby the overall availability Environ. mental concerns regarding these, particularly limitations in undertaking this work effectively in forest areas,willbeaddressed. While implementation of these suggestions looks difficult in the absence of a broader political consensus, the Plan Panels suggestion on pooling of imported and domestic coalpriceshasfoundtraction. The state power sector remains in badshape,withoutstandingdebtsestimated to cross R2 lakh crore. The Centre is preparing a debt recast packagefordiscoms,whichisexpected to go a long way towards resolving their cash flow problems. Meanwhile, state electricity regulatory commissions have shown determination on tariff revision after being pulled up by the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity The situation might . improve soon. But the question is if this is enough to ensure long-term viability of the state power sector or a radically different approach like privatisationwouldberequired? ADVERTORIAL
E&P business, GAIL has participatinginterestintwooffshoreblocks(A-1 & A-3) in Myanmar. Commercial production of gas from Myanmar shall startfromMay2013.Inadditiontohaving two wholly owned subsidiaries namely GAIL Global (Singapore) Pte Ltd&GAILGlobal(USA)Inc.formanaging investments abroad, GAIL also has a representative office in Cairo, Egypt to pursue business opportunitiesinAfricaandMiddleEast.
GAILs endeavour is to constantly keep up the momentum of growth while focusing on business sustainability. Maintaining a balance between growth and environment has been and will continue to be the underlying philosophy of GAIL. GAIL is making efforts to provide access to affordable, efficient and low-carbon energy to meet the growing energy demand of an emerging India. It is also setting up LNG import infrastructure and focusing on growing areas like city gas distribution, expanding downstream business like petrochemicals, diversifying into high margin downstream business in gas value chain and also creating a portfolio of renewal businesses. Foreseeing the immense potential in the Indian gas sector, GAIL developed a well conceived strategic blueprint with ambitious goals for its growth and has accordingly started executing various pipeline projects, covering 16 different states to establish a truly pan Indian presence. GAIL has also started execution of project for doubling its petrochemical capacity at Pata. This, along with pipeline and other projects, will entail a capital investmentof aroundR400,000mninthe next4-5years. Movingbeyondgas,GAILisventuring into renewable energy sources.To harness the natural convergence between gas and power business, diversification into gas based plants and distributedpowergenerationisinthe process.GAILs motto of value beyond business is intrinsically linked to its business philosophy and it pridesitself inbeingasociallyresponsiblecorporate.TheCSReffortsof the company are focused at enabling inclusivedevelopmentof thecommunities in and around its work centres through engaging, partnering, and empoweringthelocalpopulation.
VISION
FUTUREGOALS
INTERNATIONALFORAYS
GAIL is slowly but steadily building up its overseas presence and is currently present in five countries. In