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TOI : PUNE: The Pune model of zero load-shedding will have one more avenue to secure additional power to keep Pune free from power cuts if the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) permits the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) to facilitate sale-purchase of power on week and month ahead basis.

The IEX — which started functioning in June 2008 — at present, facilitates power transactions on day ahead basis, which means that power can be bought for the next day, only a day before. This results in some uncertainty since power availability keeps changing. The Tata Power Trading Company Limited (TPTCL), which is procuring power for the Pune model, is currently booking power through the IEX a day in advance, resulting in daily changes in the load-shedding hours in Pune.

In view of the need to book power for a longer period, last month, the IEX filed a petition before the CERC requesting permission for starting power transactions on week/month ahead basis.

The IEX has said in its petition that there were significant advantages of allowing power exchanges to facilitate week ahead/month ahead contracts for willing seller and purchaser. A licensed trader usually undertakes purchase and sale of electricity for a maximum period of one year to the minimum period of few hours. At present, there is no organised mechanism whereby one could sell electricity on a weekly or monthly basis.

The IEX said that it was also very difficult for a person having surplus electricity or a person who can release surplus electricity for a week or month to find a purchaser. The power exchange can offer such a facility.

“It is therefore of utmost importance that power exchange is developed to arrange for other contracts like week ahead or month ahead basis. This will facilitate more competition with more number of people participating in the sale and purchase of electricity,”…More

TOI : PUNE: The Bund Garden police arrested Raghunath Mane (30) of Katraj for allegedly making obscene remarks against a woman insurance agent on November 12.

According to the police, Mane works as a safety manager in a private firm is the woman’s client. She works as an agent in a leading insurance company at Koregaon Park. She is also the sister of a police sub-inspector.

The woman, in her complaint, states that Mane had given her Rs 10,000 as installment for an insurance policy, a receipt was issued for this transaction. The plaint further reads that Mane has charged her with the misuse of this money for her personal gains, before she passed it on to the company.

The complainant charged that Mane accosted her and proposed to her on November 9. He then told her that he spends large sums of money on girls and showed her some photographs of women stored on his cell phone. The woman also said that Mane again met her the next day and told her that he would spend on her too. The complainant alleges that Mane made sexual advances at her.

Senior police inspector Ranjit Dhure of the Bund Garden police station said that Mane was arrested after the victim registered a case against him under section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) under the IPC. Mane was produced before the court, which later released him on bail, Dhure added. B…More

TOI : PUNE: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has opposed the Pune Municipal Corporation’s decision to appoint Engineers India Limited (EIL) to conduct the technical audit of development works carried out under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme.

Speaking to mediapersons on Saturday, BJP corporator and leader of the party in PMC, Vikas Mathkari said, “On October 24, the JNNURM cell of the PMC wrote to EIL asking them to conduct technical audit of the civic works. The civic body will pay 0.5 per cent amount of the total project cost to the company for conducting the audit. This is an unnecessary move, as a majority of the works under the JNNURM are either complete or under way”.

Mathkari added that the PMC should have appointed the technical audit consultant before a project began. “The civic body has appointed IL&FS and other consultants to monitor projects. There is no need to appoint another consultant for JNNURM works.”
The PMC is planning to initiate technical audits of some of the major roads developed recently. This includes the airport road, Sancheti hospital road, Bajirao road, Pashan-Sus road, Shivaji road, Bajirao road, Nehru road and Sinhagad road. B…More

TOI : PUNE: If the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) permits the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) to facilitate sale-purchase of power on week and month ahead basis, there are hopes that the Pune model of zero load-shedding will have one more avenue to secure additional power.

Supporting the IEX application, Vivek Velankar, founder Sajag Nagrik Manch (SNM) consumer group, said Pune was the first city to mitigate load-shedding through a public-private partnership scheme known as Pune model. The model is based on a concept that whatever power is needed for mitigating load-shedding in a particular city would be separately arranged and paid for by the citizens. In Pune, the model has been working for the last 28 months.

“Since April 2008, Tata Power has been appointed as the franchise to procure additional power required by Pune to prevent load-shedding. During April/May 2008, Tata Power procured power with firm contracts. But, since October 1, the company has been buying power from IEX on day ahead basis and, due to price and availability constraints in day ahead mechanism, the assured power is not available every day,” Velankar said.

He said if the IEX was allowed to facilitate week ahead/month ahead transactions then there would be a better chance of getting assured power on a relatively long term basis.

Velankar has urged people to send their submissions to CERC supporting the IEX petition by November 18. Details about sending submissions can be obtained from www.cercind.gov.in. B…More

TOI : PUNE: The Pune police checked as many as 1,876 vehicles and seized 373 vehicles during a massive ‘nakabandi’ operation, which was carried out in all parts of the city on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday between 12 am to 3 am.

Police commissioner Satyapal Singh, joint commissioner Rajendra Sonawane and nine deputy commissioners were on the road during the drive. Singh himself checked 70 vehicles at Shanipar chowk on Bajirao Road on Saturday.

“It was a special drive and was conducted in the jurisdiction of all police stations in the city. We covered 34 major chowks,” said joint commissioner of police Rajendra Sonawane.
Sonawane added, “We detained 373 vehicles as their owners failed to produce proper documents. We also arrested seven people for driving in an inebriated state and caught another 35 had learning licenses.” B…More