FOR most of its 271 years, an old lumber mill along the Rahway River in Cranford got its power from water spilling over the falls near its banks. The building is now used for office space, its old-fashioned waterwheel long ago displaced by electricity generated from a modern fossil fuel-burning plant.

Smriti Kak Ramachandran DERC undecided whether to levy surcharge or not Consumers unsure of the benefits of open access NEW DELHI: Power consumers in the Capital are yet to warm up to the idea of choosing their electricity distributor, a practice known as "open access' that will become functional from July 1.

Low-cost biogas, an alternative fuel for cooking, is increasingly getting popular among the people in different rural areas of Lalmonirhat. Biogas is not only used as fuel for cooking foods it is also being used for producing electricity. The people, who never thought of having electricity in their remote areas, are now using electric bulbs, operating radio and television thanks to biogas plants. Currently, more than 250 rural families in the district are using biogas instead of firewood to cook foods and to electrify their houses, local sources said.

As part of its efforts to supply electricity of high quality free from disruptions to the residents of the State Capital, Jaipur Vidyut Vitaran Nigam has started installing 8 MVA power transformers at prime locations here. The first such transformer was installed at the Residency sub-station here on Monday. Jaipur discom Chairman and Managing Director R. G. Gupta said an extensive network of 8 MVA transformers would be established across the Pink City to replace the existing 5 MVA converters.

In its continued effort to produce " green energy' non dependent on fossilised imported oil, Hayleys Group is currently building a wind power farm on the Western coast of Sri Lanka, the company has announced. The company's energy sector chief Mervyn de Silva said, a 10 MW wind power plant is being built at Nirmalapura at Kalpitiya in the Puttalam district to augment Hayleys' already existing green energy power generating plants like the hydropower stations.

The country's electricity generation is diminishing every month, belying the authorities' much-trumpeted assurance that power supply situation would improve from May with the end of irrigation season. Frequency of outages throughout the country has been on the rise as the Power Development Board rather added less electricity to national grid in May than in June, PDB data showed. The interim government time and again said that they would be able to save on electricity when irrigation pumps would be shut from May and so-called rental power plants would come into operation.

Sujay Mehdudia Seeking to address the ground reality and change the way of working of public sector power companies, the Prime Minister's Office has directed the Power Ministry to change the definition of "commissioning of projects' and use the Commercial Operation Date (COD) as the relevant milestone. In a letter to Power Secretary Anil Razdan, the PMO has said there is need for a specific milestone to unequivocally determine the actual addition to power generation capacity in the country.

IF YOU want to make an environmentalist squirm, mention nuclear power. Atomic energy was the green movement

WIND power works, and will work better in the future. But wind is only an interim stop on the way to a world where electricity no longer relies on fossil fuels. The ultimate goal is to harvest the sun

Finally, a deal with Europe