Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Solar PV actually anti-green energy? Is the bubble going to burst?

Its official. The solar bubble has burst. The hype on solar PV is finally being realised. It takes more energy to make solar PV generation than it actually generates back !
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?

After two back to back grid collapse and domestic power industries pushed to wall , will the constrained Indian Power Sector survive?
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



Over the period, tariff structure in India has undergone lots of changes.
Some samples:-

APSEB tariff
Domestic tariff ( BMC)
These days all bulk consumers file tariff petritions with SERC or CERC.