Performance awards for 21 power utilities

Our Bureau

New Delhi, March 20 The Centre on Thursday presented 21 power utilities, including NTPC Ltd, Tata Power and PGCIL, with national awards for meritorious performance during the year 2006-07.

The country's largest power generating company NTPC Ltd received four awards for the performance of its Simahdri, Talcher and Kaniha, Korba and Vindhyachal power stations.

Three projects of PGCIL and two of Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corp were also presented with the national awards for Meritorious Performance in 2006-07.

Tata Power, Reliance Energy, JSW Energy and Torrent Power and electricity utility of Tamil Nadu were also among the companies awarded.

While presenting the awards, the Power Minister, Mr Sushilkumar Shinde, said: "There has been improvement in all fields of the power sector. However, due to the increasing demand of energy, the country is still facing energy shortage of 9.5 per cent and peak demand shortage of 15.8 per cent