China NDRC to Check Power Generators for Illegal Price Discounts

China’s economic planning agency said it will carry out checks on power generators and local governments to make sure they are abiding by new rules banning the sale of electricity at discounts to high-consumption companies.

Earnings from such discounts will be confiscated and suppliers will be fined up to five times the value of the income they received from the illegal sales, the National Development and Reform Commission said on its website today.

The checks will be carried out by six government agencies including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Energy Bureau, according to the statement.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-21/china-ndrc-to-check-power-generators-for-illegal-price-discounts.html

CERC notifies new grid code to promote solar power generation

Solar energy producers will not be penalised even if they do not supply promised power to the grid. In order to further incentivise solar power generation, power sector regulator central electricity regulatory commission (CERC) on Wednesday notified new Indian electricity grid code (IEGC).

The move is aimed at insulating solar power generators from losses arising due to fluctuation in generation. Solar power generation is based on solar irradiation that fluctuates and is beyond anybody’s control, CERC secretary Alok Kumar told Financial Chronicle over phone.

Grid connected power stations are normally required to submit their schedule of power supply to state loading dispatch centers. Any shortages in supply is penalised through imposition of unscheduled inter-change (UI) charges. Solar plants have been also exempted from submitting the power supply schedule to grid as the technology is not available in India.

A CERC statement said that financial burden arising due to all fluctuation in new solar energy plants and 30 per cent variation in new wind energy plants will be borne by states.

This could, however, mean increase in electricity cost for end users. “These (solar and wind) project developers and host states will not be at disadvantage from such fluctuations,” the statement said. Under the new IEGC, CERC also tightened operational parameters for power generating stations to ensure better performance.

The control area jurisdiction in terms of load despatch centre has also been revised. Generating stations supplying to more than one states would now be in domain of regional load despatch centres, except where the host state has long term power purchase agreement of more than 50 per cent capacity.

All users of inter-state grid including distribution utilities will also be directly responsible for grid discipline and load management, in addition to state load despatch centres. Utilities have been mandated to prepare and implement automatic load management schemes from next year.
http://www.mydigitalfc.com/news/cerc-notifies-new-grid-code-promote-solar-power-generation-842