Page 10 - AsiaElec week 23

AsiaElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AsiaElec
TRADING
Nepali Indian IPPs create
trading firm to export
energytoIndia,Bangladesh
A group of 20 Nepali private power developers have founded Nepal Power Exchange Ltd to supply export privately generated power to India and Bangladesh.
e IPPs have jointly formed the energy trading company as the additional electricity expected to be generated by the end of
next scal is at risk of going to waste if the government is unable to export it.
At present, the country is generating 1,142 megawatts of electricity, of which more than half is generated by IPPs.
“Despite our signi cant contribution to the energy sector, the government has largely ignored our genuine concerns,” claimed Asish Garg, managing director of the company, who is also the promoter and general secretary of Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal (IPPAN).
“Hence, we have established a public company to ensure the market for electricity generated by IPPs.”
In September 2018, when Energy Minister Barsha Man Pun had visited Bangladesh, Bangladeshi government had expressed interest to purchase electricity generated from the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project of Nepal.
e Bangladeshi government had said it would purchase 500 megawatts of power from the 900-megawatt project.
COAL
Adani gets final
environmental approval for
Carmichaelmine
Adani has passed its nal environmental approval and can now begin work on its Carmichael mine in Central Queensland a er nearly nine years of planning, erce protests and endless political debate.
On June 13, Queensland’s Environment Department approved the mine’s groundwater management plan, with construction at the Galilee Basin to ramp up over the coming weeks.
A er Labor’s poor results at the federal election, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk last month said she was “fed up” with both the federal and state delays for the Indian miner and gave her Environment Department the new deadlines.
Over the past 18 months Adani had produced about a dozen versions of the
plan. Previous attempts failed to meet key environmental requirements, including a plan to avoid destroying one of the world’s last unspoiled desert oases, the Doongmabulla Springs Complex.
It was ordered to identify the source of the springs and on June 13 the Environment Department said Adani had su ciently established that Clematis Sandstone was the main source aquifer.
However, the miner was ordered to do further investigation and install a new bore to rule out whether the Permian aquifers (Colinlea) was also a source.
It will also be required to do further
work over the next two years to identify any other potential source, by using detailed hydrogeochemical analysis of groundwater from di erent springs, isotopic analysis, air sampling and examinations of core samples from new bores.
e Department said while box cut mining can begin at the site, underground mining will not commence until the further testing
is completed. Adani Australia chief executive Lucas Dow said that over the coming days the company would start “preparatory activities” such as nalising contracts, mobilising equipment and recruitment.
RETAIL
Singapore’s iSwitch win contracts from ES Power
All of ES Power’s business and residential customers, totalling more than $15 million in electricity retail contracts, will be transferred to its fellow green energy retailer iSwitch by the end of June, under a new partnership between the rms.
iSwitch will maintain the same electricity rate, terms and conditions of ES Power’s existing contracts for these customers.
e transfer process for the contracts
is purely administrative and performed electronically, so there will be no disruption to the customers’ electricity supply, iSwitch said in a media statement on ursday (June 6). ES Power customers have been noti ed of this transition. Both retailers announced a joint marketing initiative to help promote sustainability and a greener Singapore.
Under this marketing partnership, ES Power will help to build iSwitch’s customer base by marketing and promoting green electricity on behalf of iSwitch, while iSwitch will supply electricity to all its consumers.
eir consolidation comes shortly a er ve players exited Singapore’s retail electricity market for big businesses, amid erce competition triggered by a phased liberalisation of the sector.
iSwitch is a licensed electricity retailer
in Singapore o ering 100 per cent green electricity and currently serving more than 1,500 commercial accounts and 70,000 residential customers. It said that it has helped o set 35,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide - equivalent to 175,000 trees planted - since April 2016. ES Power is the energy brand of Singapore-headquartered Environmental Solutions (Asia), which recovers base and precious metals from industrial waste.
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Week 23 13•June•2019