Page 13 - AsiaElec Week 14

AsiaElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AsiaElec
climate change resolution.
While they represent only a fraction of
shareholding rights their support for the resolution brought by Kiko Network, an activist group and shareholder in the bank, the investors’ support adds to the pressure on the bank, which has already tightened its lending policies but critics say more is needed.
“As we await new strict coal and fossil
fuel policies from Mizuho, we will without
a doubt support the new climate change- based shareholder resolution ... at this year’s annual general meeting,” said Jeanett Bergan, head of Responsible Investment at KLP, which has more than $80bn of assets under management.
South Korean Q1 thermal coal imports to shrink
South Korea’s first-quarter thermal coal imports are set to fall to a decade-low due to stricter air pollution measures, while the coronavirus outbreak has reduced the country’s demand for electricity, Reuters reported.
South Korea, the world’s No.4 coal importer, is expected to import around 19.85mn tonnes of thermal coal for the first three months, down 19.2% year-on-year. That would be the country’s lowest first-quarter imports since 2010 when it imported 19.55mn tonnes.
The drop in imports comes after South Korea imposed tougher restrictions on coal- fired power from December through March, halting nearly half of the country’s 60 coal power plants by March as part of efforts to improve air quality. Coronavirus outbreak had reduced demand for electricity as business and factory activity slows.
India’s coal ministry wants power plants to keep buying coal despite weak demand
India’s coal ministry wants electricity generators to keep buying coal, despite a steep fall in power demand due to a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Reuters reported.
Anil Kumar Jain, the secretary of India’s Ministry of Coal, last week wrote to Sanjiv Nandan Sahai, the top bureaucrat in the power ministry, to ensure power generators do not cut back intakes of coal from state-run
Coal India Ltd.
“I request the Ministry of Power to prevail
upon central gencos, NTPC Ltd and its
JVs, state gencos and independent power producers not to restrict intake of coal from Coal India and Singreni Collieries,” Jain said in the April 3 letter, which was seen by Reuters.
A Ministry of Power spokesman did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
Electricity consumption slumped 21.3%
in the first two weeks of the lockdown ended April 7, compared with the first three weeks of March, according to government data.
Utilities’ stocks at mines and miners’ inventories have hit record highs due to low demand, pushing many power plants to avoid buying more coal, Coal India officials say.
A similar approach led to a shortage of coal in the 2017/18 year after companies restricted buying from Coal India the year before, citing sufficient availability, he said, adding power companies should prioritise lifting coal.
“Worst congestion of routes can be expected once railways start attaching priorities to the movement of people and other essential goods, once the lockdown is lifted,” Jain said.
Power plants buying coal now is crucial for Coal India, as the state-run company’s production and supply capabilities are at their peak.
The world’s largest coal miner posted a drop in output for the first time in over two decades during the year ended March 2020.
India has directed the central electricity regulator to provide three months to distribution companies (DISCOMs) to make payments to power producers, a move that could provide relief to DISCOMs but
affect the finances of generating companies which are already reeling due to burgeoning overdues.
Coal India has extended the time limit to pay for coal by two weeks to April 21 to ease financial strains on its customers.
R E N E W A B L E S
Vietnam finally unveils new FITs
The Vietnamese government has set new feed- in tariff (FIT) rates for utility-scale, rooftop and floating solar installations.
The new purchase price for electricity generated by ground-mounted PV plants is $0.0709 per kWh over a period of 20 years, and $0.0838 per kWh for rooftop PV arrays. The government will also offer a FIT rate of $0.0769 per kWh for floating solar projects, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said on April 6.
PV developers will only qualify for the new rates if they put their projects into commercial operation by December 31, 2020. All other projects will be subject to price determination through a competitive bidding process, state- run utility EVN said in an online statement.
The announcement of the new FIT rates ends a 10-month period of policy uncertainty. Vietnam’s previous FIT programme expired on June 30, 2019.
Vietnam’s installed PV capacity stood at roughly 5.69GW at the end of 2019, according to statistics from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
Week 14 08•April•2020
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