Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), a statutory body under the Union ministry of power, is planning to save 2,308 Mw of energy worth around Rs 11,540 crore during the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) by mandating the labelling of electronic products. Of this, 400 Mw, worth Rs 2,000 crore, is expected to be saved from the air-conditioners segment.

The central government has already mandated four products – split air-conditioners, fluorescent lamps, transformers and frost-free refrigerators – under the energy efficiency star-labelling to reduce energy consumption, and identified 10 products on a voluntary basis.

Environment Protection Department (EPD) Punjab issued notices to 110 polluter industrial units on Friday.

EPD sources said that six squads were constituted last week in view of increasing cases of environmental pollution which was causing health hazards.

The sources said industries were issued an environmental approval with certain conditions to enure that there was no negative impact on the environment and National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) were followed strictly.

The Centre is contemplating to hike retail prices of urea by 10 per cent. The proposal is likely to be put up before the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs soon for its consideration.

A panel, led by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, had last year approved a new draft urea policy, which proposed partial freeing of retail prices, allowing companies to hike urea prices by 10 per cent in the first year of policy implementation.

New Delhi The coal ministry has proposed a sovereign fund to facilitate the acquisition of coal properties abroad. The proposal comes following the demands from steel, fertiliser and power companies that have been trying hard to buy mineral assets in countries like Indonesia and Australia.

“Though Coal India has surplus resources for investing outside, it is important to have financial support from the government for acquiring very large assets abroad," coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal told reporters on the sidelines of a CII conference.

The power ministry will allow producers to raise tariffs if fuel costs of new projects rise, and will not oppose a hike in domestic gas prices. The move would hurt consumers but rescue large private investments that are threatened by uncertainty over fuel and tariffs.
Linking tariffs to fuel costs will help new power projects, such as the next set of ultra mega power plants (UMPPs) yet to be awarded, and gas-fired electricity plants with a capacity of over 7,000 mw that have been built but are idling because of fuel scarcity, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told ET.

New Delhi: Reflecting a slowdown in the economy, the growth rate of eight core infrastructure sectors dipped to 2% in March and 4.3% during 2011-12 on account of poor performance in crude oil and natural gas. The growth rate of eight industries — crude oil, petroleum refinery products, natural gas, fertilisers, coal, electricity, cement and finished steel — have a weightage of 37.9% in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), in March moderated to 2% from 6.5% in the same month last year.

Move ensures uninterrupted urea supply to Indian market Govt not to drag Gulf nation to International Tribunal

The government has accepted the proposal seeking hike in prices of gas supplied by Oman to an Indian fertiliser plant in the Gulf nation to $1.5 per mmBtu for this year, a move that will ensure uninterrupted supply of urea to the Indian market.

Amid depleting resources and rising global prices of soil nutrients, the fertiliser ministry has proposed a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) of $1 billion to acquire such assets abroad. “We have given a proposal to the finance ministry for creating a SWF of $1 billion for acquiring fertiliser mineral assets in foreign countries,” a source in the fertiliser ministry said.

Agartala: ONGC-Tripura Power Corporation (OTPC)’s 724-MW gas-based thermal power project at Palatana in South Tripura district would start generation by June, a top official of state-owned oil major ONGC said on Tuesday. The first phase of the project would be operational by June, ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Sudhir Basudeva, who reviewed the progress of work at the project with OTPC officials on Monday, told reporters here.

tHE 724-MW gas-based thermal power project is a JV between ONGC and Tripura Power Corporation

ONGC-Tripura Power Corporation (OTPC)'s 724-MW gas-based thermal power project at Palatana in South Tripura district would start generation by June, a top official of state-owned oil major ONGC said today.