Latest news with #M.BhattiVikramarka
The Hindu
a day ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Singareni plans State's first pumped storage power project near closed Medipally OC mine
HYDERABAD The Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) is planning to establish the State's first pumped storage (hydel) power project with 500 megawatt capacity as part of its plans of diversification and business expansion towards making the organisation sustainable in the wake of increasing competition in the field of coal mining. In addition to its main activity of coal mining, the company has already entered into thermal and solar power generation areas. The decision to go for a pumped storage power project was taken following the directions from the State government, which holds a majority stake of 51% in the company. After preliminary study on the scope of the pumped storage project, the company has decided to entrust the task of detail project report (DPR) preparation to the Central Government agency WAPCOS. The letter of award for DPR preparation was given to the company at a meeting held here on Saturday. According to Chairman and Managing Director of the SCCL N. Balaram, the pumped storage power project is being planned at the water storage area (sump) created following the closure of Medipally opencast mine in the Ramagundam-I area. He stated that neither the State power utility Genco nor any private company has planned/materialised a pumped storage power project in Telangana so far, though several such projects were taken up in the neighbouring States. Deputy Chief Minister M. Bhatti Vikramarka, who handles the portfolios of Energy and Finance, has already visited the closed Medipally opencast mine area before giving a go ahead for the new venture. The WAPCOS would take up a comprehensive study before preparing the DPR - including geological, geotechnical and hydrology studies as also civil, mechanical and electrical designs, environmental aspects and safety works. The estimated cost of the project, time for its execution and sale of energy generated at the project would be included in the DPR to be prepared by WAPCOS. Mr. Balaram explained that a 157-meter deep water sump/tank was created with the abandonment of the Medipally opencast mine after the extraction of coal reserves there and the rainwater stored in it would be available round-the-year. The cost of the project is expected to be around ₹3,000 crore and it would have a life of 40 years – generating cheap energy for 40 years. Another reservoir with 2,350 meters length and 23-meter depth in the upstream area would be created with the same water-holding capacity (9.64 million cubic meters) and aout 8 million cubic meters of rainwater in the sump downstream would be pumped into to the upstream stream reservoir in day-time with the help of solar energy. In the night, the water pumped into the upstream reservoir would be channelised into turbines to generate hydel energy.
The Hindu
20-05-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
TG team led by Deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka studies UG cabling project in Bengaluru
HYDERABAD A team of energy department authorities led by Deputy Chief Minister M. Bhatti Vikramarka, who holds the portfolios of Energy and Finance, visited Bengaluru on Tuesday to study the underground cabling taken up by the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Ltd (Bescom) as the Telangana government too is planning to go for UG cabling in Hyderabad beginning with some key areas. Chairman and Managing Director of the TG-Transco D. Krishna Bhaskar, CMD of Telangana Southern Discom Md. Musharraf Faruqui and a few senior engineers of the two power utilities were part of the team led by Mr. Vikramarka. They were taken around the UG cabling works by MD of Karnataka Transco and Bescom Pankaj Pandey. According to the Deputy Chief Minister, the visit was undertaken as part of the State government's plans to modernise the urban infrastructure and improve power supply systems' reliability, safety and aesthetics in rapidly growing metropolitan areas (Hyderabad). The visit commenced with a high-level review meeting hosted by the Bescom officials. Through a power point presentation, Mr. Pandey explained to the visiting team on the Bengaluru Overhead (OH) to Underground (UG) Power Conversion Project, which he claimed had emerged as one of the country's most comprehensive urban power infrastructure transformations. He stated that the project launched in 2018–19 had already converted over 7,400 km of 11 kV OH lines and thousands of km of low-tension lines into UG or aerial bunched (AB) cables. Innovation in UG cabling A key innovation of the project was laying of the Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) ducts along the UG cable routes to enable future telecom leasing as a revenue stream. The Deputy Chief Minister of Telangana enquired about the design and implementation challenges. The Bescom officials explained to Mr. Vikramarka and his team that the financial structuring of the project and it includes loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and other public sector banks and that technical losses and electrical accidents had come down by 2% since the UG implementation. On the readiness of OFC infrastructure for commercial use, the Bescom officials stated that while ducts were in place, the last-mile coordination with telecom operators and BBMP was in progress and that the role of Ring Main Units (RMUs) had ensured system reliability and had reduced downtime during faults. Mr. Vikramarka appreciated the scale and execution discipline of the project and hoped that the study would benefit the urban grid modernisation to be taken up in Telangana, particularly in Future City. Later, the team visited a pilot site in Malleshwaram (15th Cross) where an Underground Distribution network, including an underground Distribution Transformer (DTR) system, was being implemented. The site showcased how DTRs could be housed in fully buried chambers with accessible maintenance panels at the street level, freeing up urban space and improving safety, according to the officials accompanying the Deputy CM.
