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Japanese utility Tohoku Electric Power Co said on Thursday it has lost 400 megawatts of power output due to extended work on a turbine at its gas-fired 1,700-MW Higashi-Niigata plant. The company said it expects the unit to resume full operations around Dec. 1, after it replaces a turbine wing at the No.4 series unit. Tohoku on Tuesday resumed getting surplus power, totalling 700 MW, from neighboring utilities Tokyo Electric Power Co and Hokkaido Electric Power Co for the first time since the summer, as power demand spiked due to chilly winter weather. The northern utility has been struggling to secure enough power supplies on its own after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami damaged several nuclear and fossil-fuel fired plants. here  

HCMC will set aside an amount of VND1 trillion for renewable energy projects following approval from the Ministry of Industry and Trade for the city’s power development plan for the 2011-2015 period.As part of this plan, HCMC will build a plant producing power from garbage in Hiep Phuoc Waste Treatment Complex in Cu Chi District with a maximum capacity of 40MW. The city will also focus on generating energy from garbage, wind, solar power not only to produce energy but also to solve environmental problems. Besides, HCMC will need up to around VND21 trillion to invest in its power grid, including low- and medium-voltage power cables, 110-kV and 220-kV power lines, to serve the demand for its socioeconomic development. Under the plan, the maximum capacity of the city’s power system will reach 4,800MW in 2015 with a commercial electricity output of around 28.3 billion kWh and an annual growth rate of 12.9%. In this period, HCMC will also put underground medium-voltage cables in new urban areas and industrial parks, including all power cables in districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 and 11. Meanwhile, Go Vap, Tan Binh, Binh Thanh, Phu Nhuan and Thu Duc districts will have 85% of cables underground and the ratio for other districts is 20-40%.  

Ho Chi Minh City will set aside an amount of VND1 trillion for renewable energy projects for the 2011-2015 period.

A national consultation workshop on the environmental and social impact assessments of the Nam Ou 2 dam in Luang Prabang province was held in Vientiane last week.

This is part of the country's road map to grab 10% share of the world's clean energy market by 2020.

Goldwind partners with Powercor Australia to connect 13 Goldwind 1.5 MW turbines to the Australian grid.

Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd and the Universiti Sains Malaysia signed an MoU aimed at increasing energy efficiency via lower cost methods.

Thailand's Electricity Generating Pcl or EGCO has submitted a bid for a stake in GS Power, a subsidiary of South Korea's GS Caltex, as part of an expansion drive.

Thailand's Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding will build power plants in Myanmar.

Areva T&  has bagged a Rs 200 crore contract from state-owned PowerGrid Corp for setting up a transmission network at Bareilly, in Uttar Pradesh.

Voith Hydro will supply turbines, generators and electrical and mechanical auxiliaries for Sikkim’s Rongnichu  Hydro-Electric Project.

Power Grid Corporation is exploring the possibility of setting up a ’smart grid’ on pilot basis to reduce transmission and distribution loss.

Electricity of Viet Nam is seeking loans from international finance organisations and domestic commercial banks to fund power transmission projects.

First Solar's decison to halt the construction of the solar panel in Ho Chi Minh City has raised a worry that it may  stop investing in  Vietnam or narrow the project scale.

SN Power, a Norwegian government-controlled renewable energy developer, is aiming to become an industrial investor in Vietnam within the next two years by targetting local hydropower assets.

The US Government-sponsored banks that have helped fund the takeoff of India’s fledgling solar industry may soon move to withdraw their support, according to an official at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). Peter Ballinger, OPIC’s director, has said that the agency is rapidly approaching its lending limit for PV projects in India and opined that multilateral lenders like the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB) could shortly be forced to reassess their aid packages. The ADB, WB and OPIC were among the first to invest in developing solar in India. However, such has been the success of the investment programme that projects in the country now account for 8.5% of OPIC’s total loan book, nearing its 10% limit for any one country. India hopes to complete its first round of large-scale PV installations by January, and is planning to hold an auction for a further 350MW of projects later this month. In October Moser Baer installed India’s largest system to date, a 30MW system in the state of Gujarat, and national capacity now stands at 125MW. Ballinger believes that, with the industry maturing, the time is right for development banks to start withdrawing support. “We’re supposed to be catalytic for new industries by providing financing at an early stage until more traditional lenders get comfortable with the risks of new technologies and businesses they’re unfamiliar with,” he said. “It may be time for commercial banks to step in to India’s solar sector now that it appears to be ramping up."