Alok Kumar

The fiscal year ended in March was expected to be a significant milestone for NTPC Green, the face of transition for the country's biggest coal consumer

Policy on carbon capture likely in next 3 months

The government will take all possible measures to meet the 230 gigawatt (GW) single-day peak demand expected in April 2023, according to Power Secretary Alok Kumar. On Wednesday, Power Minister R K Singh presided over a meeting to review the preparation to meet the high electricity demand expected in April next year. The top power ministry official, Chairperson of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) Ghanshyam Prasad besides other government officers were part of the meeting. On the outcome of the meeting, the secretary told PTI there are two parameters on which the government will work. Firstly, it will ensure there should be enough power generation capacity, and for that companies have been directed to carry out maintenance work of their plants so there is no issue at that time, he said. According to Kumar, the demand in April next year could be as high as 230 GW. As per official figures, the maximum all-India power demand met at 2:51 pm on April 26, 2022 was 201.066 GW. Th

The government on Thursday asked smart meter makers to bring down the cost of the device to make it more affordable. Power Secretary Alok Kumar said safety, quality and design should be the key parameters for manufacturing of smart meters. "I urge the manufacturers to think of innovative ways to reduce the price of the meters to half without compromising on quality. We have improved the loss reduction aspect and are working on the expansion of RDSS scheme and smart distribution," Kumar said while addressing industry body IEEMA's '9th Metering India 2022' event here. Besides, IEEMA should focus on capacity building of the utilities and finding opportunities to change conventional meters into smart meters with sustainable disposing option, he said. As per industry estimates, a smart meter costs around USD 50, including manufacturing and installation charges. Around 25 crore smart prepaid metres are to be installed by March 2025 under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) at

In a Q&A, Alok Kumar says the law, however, will speed up reforms, given a lot of investment is needed to meet the country's net-zero target

The Association of Power Producers has asked the power ministry to treat all operational staff across the electricity supply value chain as a priority category for vaccination

Verma succeeds B S Bassi, who retires today