Energy Handbook 2011 - GBR

P o w e r S u m m i t - T h e E n e r g y H a n d b o o k 2 0 1 1
C o u n t r y P r o f i l e : I n d i a
A small dam to
be constructed
at the valley of
Mahabaleshwar
Hill Station in
India for local
consumption, one
of the several
around the country
With such a vast potential and a
commitment to managing its emissions
of greenhouse gases, India needs to
encourage substantial private-sector
investment in large-scale hydro schemes.
One solution might be to reconsider the
rules distinguishing large-scale hydro
schemes from their smaller siblings, as
Patel argues: “We need to consider all
hydropower as renewable, which will
allow developers to sell their output
for more profit, therefore making the
sector more attractive and increasing
investment.” India was an early pioneer
in the use of biomass as an energy
resource, with efforts initially focused
on farm waste gasification. Attention is
now being given by both the Government
and the private sector to generating
electricity from biomass. With the world’s
largest rural population and multiple large
metropolises that have yet to come to
grips with the disposal of urban waste,
there exists a window of opportunity
to integrate energy generation into the
waste management system.
One early mover in biomass is power
transmission engineering and waste
management group A2Z. This company
aims to become an engineering expert
in the field as well as an independent
power producer in its own right. “We
are now setting up three new biomass
power plants, each of 15 MW capacity,
integrated with the sugar industry,” says
Rakesh Aggarwal, Chairman and Managing
Director of A2Z Powercom. “Our strategy
with setting up these plants is to be able
to integrate with any industry that has
agri-waste or municipal waste. A very
important factor for the smaller renewable
energy plants is that they are exempt from
environmental clearance. Construction
time is less than a year, which is a much
better proposition compared to other
kinds of power plants.”
Much of India is blessed with high and
consistent levels of solar radiation. The
central Government and a number of states,
which are competing to become India’s
solar manufacturing hub, have introduced
attractive subsidies to foster development
of solar power. Central, state and city
governments are providing householders
and businesspeople with support to install
photovoltaic (PV) panels and thermal
water heaters at the distributed level. One
pioneer in this field is Delhi. “Delhi has had
the reputation of being ‘power cut city’,”
explains Rakesh Mehta, Chief Secretary
at the Government of the National Capital
Territory of Delhi. “Mega-cities like Delhi,
which depend almost exclusively on power
to meet their economic needs, will have to
find new and innovative solutions to meet
their requirements.” As part of a wider
campaign to reduce pollution and improve
the electricity supply Delhi has adopted
a large-scale programme to promote
solar water heaters, giving subsidies of
up to 6,000 rupees ($130) for 100-litre
systems in the domestic sector and up to
60,000 rupees ($1,300) for commercial
buildings.
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar
Mission is a nationwide scheme to promote
PV usage. Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Union
Minister for New and Renewable Energy,
says that the Mission has twin objectives:
“To contribute to India’s long-term energy
security as well as its ecological security.
The rapid development and deployment
of renewable energy is imperative in this
context, and in view of high solar radiation
over the country, solar energy provides a
long-term sustainable solution. The Solar
Mission recommends implementation in
three stages, leading up to an installed
capacity of 20 GW by the end of the
13th Plan in 2022. What we do in the
next three to four years will be critical.
Therefore, the Cabinet has approved the
setting up of 1,100 MW of grid solar
power and 200 MW of off-grid solar
applications utilising both solar thermal
and PV technologies in the first phase of
the Mission. In addition, the Mission will
also focus on R&D and human resources
to develop and strengthen Indian skills
and enhance indigenous content to make
the Mission sustainable.”
want to make solar power affordable to
the masses.” India has refused to signed
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and
for three decades it was blocked from
trading with the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
In 2008 an American-brokered deal saw
India re-enter the world of international
civilian nuclear trade and the country has
set out a route map to increase its nuclear
fleet more than thirteen-fold, to 63 GW,
by 2032.
Transmission, Distribution
and Trading
India’s transmission and distribution
(T&D) sector has been the silent sister
of generation since 2003, but over the
coming decade this is set to change
dramatically. As the private sector has
rushed to spend billions of dollars on
new generation capacity, only a handful
of distribution concessions in Delhi and
Mumbai have been privatised. Instead,
new transmission lines have invariably
been built by the Government-controlled
PowerGrid Corp., sometimes in joint
ventures with private-sector partners.
Amul Gabrani, Chairman and Managing
Director of transmission engineering
company Hythro Power, explains the
situation in T&D: “The public-private
partnerships in the power sector started
in the generation side. Originally,
transmission lines were being delivered
by a single body, PowerGrid Corp. Now
the market is starting to liberalise and
there are more public-private partnerships
(PPPs) in the transmission sector. Since
there is a time lag between transmission
and generation, you will find increased
interest in transmission in the next two
years.” Gabrani is confident that the
private sector can help cut India’s terrible
T&D losses, which account for 37 percent
of all power generated. “One of the
impediments in India has been the losses
because of the quality of equipment,” he
says, “but this will change and the private
sector will look at more efficient systems.
Technical losses will go down and a lot
of groups are concentrating on this. Once
technical losses go down, the profitability
of the power sector will increase; this
will happen only with the support of the
The private sector has reacted favourably
to the Mission, though Reliance Industry
Group’s Rabindra K. Satpathy notes: “We
still have to confront a lot of assumptions
regarding reliability and expense. Currently
solar costs 12.5 rupees per unit, against
about 3 rupees for coal and gas. But if
you add other costs, such as transmission
loss, that is pushing the price up to 4 or
5 rupees.” Reliance Solar wants to bring
the cost of PV cells down to $2/MW of
capacity, Satpathy says. “We want to
speed up the pace of installation as this
will give PV a major advantage over other
generation types. Solar projects are not
controversial and can be built quickly.
Also, they are not subject to trade
embargoes: no one can stop the sun! We
have seen that people want a high quality
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of power, which PV can provide. We private sector.”
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