Indian Power Sector
This is all about the Power Sector of India. Neglected yet exemplary,the power system of India has its myriad challenges.
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Sunday, September 17, 2017
IEX @ Rs 9.9 per unit? Lessons to learn
Monday, October 24, 2016
Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE)
There are three ways one can calculate LCOe for a renewable energy project:
1. Target or Goal seeking approach:- based upon carrying charge rate.Simplest. You need to know the interest rate, carrying charge from EBIDTA/cost.
2. NPV :- based uponNPV of revenue and NPV of generation
3. Cost based:- you dont need PPA price etc. Just get the NPV of OPEX, NPV of CAPEX and the NPV of cost and generation.
Monday, October 26, 2015
AT & C losses Buck has to stop now
Present is very gloomy, thanks to buleet not being bitten by successive administrations.
Power sector of states in India is marred by corruption. As a result, if we give more electricity to people, more loss we make.
Some facts:
- India is world's 3rd largest producer and consumer of electricity.
- 28 Crore people have no access to electricity.
- Per capita consumption is just 1000 MW, China is 3000, US is 10,000.
- Peak Demand 165 GW, Capacity 270 GW :-)
- Distribution losses INR 4 lakh crore.
- Loss making states: Raj, UP,Haryana,JH,TN,AP,Telengana,Bihar.
Financial Restructuring Plans ( FRPs) have failed miserably.
Ironically, India has surplus power, but people in dark. Meanwhile, the country remains busy in elections.
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Bharat Nirman in Power Sector ( Thanks to both Britishers and Indians)
1947:- We had generating capacity of 1300 MWe
2013:- Capacity is reaching 2,00,000 MWe
1910:- Growth of power sector with the help of private licences.
1948:- SEBs were created.
1998:- CERC/State REC created.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Solar PV actually anti-green energy? Is the bubble going to burst?
EROI ( Energy return on investment ) on the solar PV has been found to be not even 5.0
In India it matters most.Why? Because in ther recent past much of the MNRE budget and state govts' inputs and subsidies have gone into solar. The catch here is theta in India resources are so few that prioritization becomes impractical. WE have pushed solar PV ahead at the cost of wind energy !
Whats happening is like this. We consume 1 unit of ffossil fuel to generate 1 unit of solar energy. Net result? Zero if not negative.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
What's going on in Indian Power Sector?
- CERC has categorically mentioned that fuel risks should not be passed to consumers straight away and should be shared among Coal India and Power Companies.
- New Power Minister Mr. Scindia has already termed the task as "daunting'' s he ha rightly realized the challenges.
- "New inspector" of the power utility as proposed by Ministry to keep tab on Power Plant's fuel impact upon tariff, has been downplayed by CERC.
- The India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF) has come out with a smart grid vision and road map, covering three five-year plans from 2012 to 2027. The 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), 13th (2017-22) and 14th Five-Year Plan (2022-27) respectively. This will take roughly an investment of $100 billion in technologies for generation, distribution, transmission and monitoring.
- Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd's Rs 2,000 crore investment plan for manufacturing solar equipment might become unviable if measures against dumping of Chinese items in the sector are not in place.
- The Design Finance Build Operate and Transfer (DFBOT) model is opposed by Private Power Producers.Private power firms fear that in the proposed structure, the land continues to be owned by the utility, and there is no provision for the developer to create charge on the project assets. This results in banks treating such loans as unsecured loans, which reduces availability of bank financing.
- AN SBI Cap report says that unlike Odisha power sector privatisation, the Delhi privatisation has been a success.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Will the power sector survive in India?
Looking into this big question following routes lead to answer:-
- DISCOMs running with over 2,50,000 Crore losses are getting debt restruction from GoI.
- CIL or private miners or the imports. Get it from anywhere, the sector needs lots of coal.
- Private distributors like Torrent in Agra may not succeed due to typical Indian Law and Order scenario.
- Regulatory framework is a silver lining. Its because of CERC that power trading through two Exchanges has begun.Currently, the two exchanges -- Indian Energy Exchange Ltd (IEX) and Power Exchange India Ltd (PXIL) – trade about 35-40 million units a day.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
More Rapid fire on Power Sector
- Who regulates hydrocarnons in India? Ans)Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) is the regulator for hydrocarbon sector.
- Who is implementing REC in India? Ans)NLDC is the agency for implementing REC mechanism in India.
- What is CIL coal production? Ans)CIL production of about 500 mt falls short of 100 mt. ( 267 billion tones reserves) .
- What is NVVN? Ans) NVVN is the power trading arm of NTPC.
- What are "regional Postage Stamps" and "Point of Connection"? Ans) they are CERC mechanisms for open access.
- How meuch electricty is produced in India in a month? Ans) around 80 billion units.
- What are 3 methods of PoC ( point of connection) type transmission pricing? Ans) Marginal participation, Avg participation and Zone to zone.
- How much natural gas India produces? Ans) About 40 billion cubic meters (BCM). about 15 bcm is imported in a year.
- How much MNRE spends in year ? Ans ) Rs 13 Billion
- What are direct tax benefits for renewable? Ans) Under section 80-IA tax holiday , Surcharge reduction of corporate tax.
- What are Indirect Tax benefits ? Ans) reduced customs duty and excise duty.
- Who supplies 1.5 MW gearless Wind Energy converters PM generator? Ans ) ReGen. ( 85 m tall V70, V77 models manufactured at Tada, AP)
Some advancements in Power Sector
- Flexisheet solar panels have come. up. M/S Power Film of Iowa is one such manufacturer. Imagine the immense possibilities !
- We need to help the coal linkages and CIL production to keep running thermal power plants in India. Renewables have capacity contribution of 10% but generation contribution of just 3%. ( capacity utlisation only 30 %).
- Gujrat has the pride of India's largest IPP: Torrent. already generating 600 MW , some 1000 MW works are in pipeline.
- Reliance(Sasan), JSW ( Ratnagiri) and GMR(Orissa) are upcoming UMPPs.
- Other than NTPC and NHPC central sector power producers are: NPC, Neyveli, DVC, BBMB,NEEPCO
Monday, February 6, 2012
Power Tariff in India
Monday, December 5, 2011
NTPC plants in India
Some facts about power sector tagets in India
'Power to all ' target is deadlined for 2012.
Intergrid capacity planned by 2012 is 30,000 MW.
Peaking shortage is estimated to be 11 %.
PLF is estimated to be 72 %
From 1700 MW in 1947, power sector has come up to 130,000 MW today.
Still 80 million rural households are in dark.
Till Aug 06, 44% of rural India had electricity. ( out of 14 Crore households, 6 Crore were electrified).
Cogeneration potential of sugar Industry is estimated to be 5000 MW ( tapped at present: 850 MW).
Thoughts on Electricity Tariff
We know that scenario in India is different.
An interesting fact about agriculture load is that therre are about 15 million pumpsets and they consume 30 billion kwh in a year (most of which is unmetered).
About Nuclear Power
There are bout 15 reactors installed in India.( mostly PHWR)
Major NPP are in Trombay, Kaiga, Kota, Narora, Kakrapar and Kalapakkam ( It has FBTR).
NPC is watched by AERB.
AEC governs DAE.
DAE has 4 parts:- R&D ( BARC Trombay, IGCAR Kalapakkam, CAT, Indore, VECC Kolkata,AMD)., Public Sector( NPCIL,ECIL,IRAL,UCil), Industrial Sector ( HWB,MUmbai,NFC Hyderabad,RAPTB Mumbai) and Servicing ( PS Directorate,CS Group, AMDir, GSO).
In addition to above there are many totally funded organisatios:-
TIFR,Tata Memorial Centre, Saha Inst of Nuc Physics Bhuvaneswar, Mehta research Inst of Maths Allahabad, Inst of Math Sciences Chennai, Atomic En Education Society, National Board of Higher Maths, Mumbai)
Kakrapar near Surat) was commissioned in 1992 . Has had some accidents in past.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Rural electrification ( as per 1991 census )
Arunachal 3600 ( 22000 )
Assam 25000 (20000 )
Bihar 70000 (50000 )
J&K 6500 (6400 )
MP 72000 (70000 )
Manipur 2200 (2000 )
Meghalaya 5500 (2500 )
Mizoram 700 (700 )
Odisha 50000 (35000 )
Rajasthan 38000 (35000 )
Tripura 900 (810 )
UP 1,15,000 (90,000 )
WB 38000 (30000 )
This means that out of total about 6 Lakh villages , 95 % are electrified.
Friday, December 2, 2011
A note on Energy Crisis
- Till 1960's coal was major contributor towards power, By 1970, Oil overtook coal. Production of crude oil rose from 1503 mT ( 1965) to 2850 mT ( 1973) . Then Arab embargo in 1973 Western multinatonal oil companies promoted a wasteful energy consumption pattern for sake of higher profits.
World's known oil reserves of 700 billion barrel wont last more than 2030 . The developing countries pay an import bill of $150 billion.
Known reserves of coal are 650 billion mT ( =3100 billion barrels of oil ).
Known reserves of natural gas are 500 billion barrel. ( 72 % of proven oil reserves and 15 % of proven coal reserves ).
Oil Shale is another energy resource, but not commercially exploited.
Forests in developing countries are being consumed @ 1.3 % of total forest area of 15 million hectares a year.
Dung being burnt annually is = 2 million tons of nitrogen and phosphorus. - 1% saving in T&D loss is = 1000 MW capacity added.
- 80% of the power capacity is with states.
- By the inputs needed to produce 1 MW, it is possible to conserve 3 MW power.
Time Line of Power Sector Reforms in India
1992 Electricity Regulatory Commission ( ERC) Act enacted.
1994 Accelerated Power Development Program launched.
1996 National Electricity Policy and National Tariff policy notified.
1998 Electricty Act , 1998 enacted.
1999 NTPC Tripartite Agreement to securitise SEB dues.
2000 Availability based tariff announced , APDRP launched.
2001 Electricity Act 2001 passed.
2003 New Electricity Act 2003, enacted.
2004 Multi year tariff announced.
2005 National Electricity Policy and National Tariff policy announced.
2006 Ultra Mega Power Projects launched.
Some more rapid fire
Ans ) Dabhol.
Q) Who has promoted the 4000 MW Mundhra Power Project ( this is another UMPP, concieved after Sasan in MP) ?
Ans) Tata Power.
Q) What are Mahanadi, Magadh, Gevra, Dipka and Amrapali ?
Ans) Coalfields of Coal India Ltd.
Q) What are Kawas and Gandhar ?
Ans) NTPC projects.
Q) Where are Naying and Ketehr Hydel projects?
Ans) In Arunachal and Himachal respectively.
Q) Who are top 5 countries to use Nuclear Power for Electricity?
Ans) France ( 80%), Lithuania ( 70%), Slovakia ( 55%), Belgium ( 55%), Ukraine (50%).
Q) How much is energy growth rate in India?
Ans) 1.5 % p.a.
Q) Formed in 1975, this Rs 6000 Crore equity organisation earns a profit of 400 Crore produces 35 billion units of electricity employing 2000 people.Name the organisation.
Ans ) NTPC
Was AP able to turnaround in 2008?
Other than Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal , Karnataka and Orissa have signifacntly reduced their AT&C losses.
Almost all states have unbundled utilities.