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Mahesh

23/01/24 10:19 AM IST

India's energy security

In News
  • India has reduced overall fossil fuel subsidies by 76% between FY14 and FY22 and is priming the domestic industry to nearly triple its installed renewable power generation capacity by 2030
Energy demands measures
  • Managing thermal plant outages better during peak demand periods.
  • In 2023, ~38 GW of coal-based power plants across India witnessed unplanned outages or were not called on to generate power during the top 10% peak demand days.
  • Improved availability and utilisation of existing plants, including the gas fleet, can mitigate the need for investments in new(er) thermal assets to meet peak power demand in the medium term.
  • This will require power utilities to forecast demand better to anticipate outages, plan maintenance and keep plants online during peak days.
  • This must be aided by regulations that incentivise plants’ availability during peak periods and/or allow idle plants to participate in the market.
  • Increasing the flexibility of the existing coal fleet. To seamlessly integrate more renewable energy (RE) into the grid, thermal plants that typically produce a steady load of power must learn to follow the vagaries of the wind and the sun.
  • This can be done by making our existing coal plants more flexible — reducing their minimum power load and improving ramp rate capabilities.
  • The Central Electricity Authority of India has already proposed modifying/retrofitting ~92% of the current coal and lignite-based capacity to enable it.
  • Such a phased plan for retrofitting must be premised on minimising grid emissions and RE curtailment for maintaining demand-supply balance.
  • Further, such flexible services must be adequately compensated.
  • For instance, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission and regulators in States such as Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have devised payment mechanisms to remunerate power plant owners for one-time retrofitting costs and the escalation in operation and maintenance costs associated with flexible operations
  • Incentivising payment for storage services beyond the supply of energy units.
  • In a scenario where RE has to contribute significantly to our demand, energy storage systems will have to support the power grid during hours when renewables are not available.
  • This is the reason for many new ‘round-the-clock’ bids that combine RE and storage, where surplus generation of renewable energy is stored in a battery.
  • However, standalone battery energy storage systems (BESS) will also be needed but they add a significant cost to each unit of electricity supplied.
  • Entities that deploy batteries must then be compensated by utilities for the value they bring to grid operation.
  • Indigenising supply chains for battery storage and RE technologies.
  • While being the lifeline of the power system, the coal economy is an important source of domestic value addition, job creation and furthering India’s ‘atmanirbhar’ aspirations.
  • In FY22, India produced coal worth ~INR 1.5 lakh crore, providing much-needed revenues to Central and State governments and an additional ~INR 27,000 crore to the Indian Railways.
  • At the current pace of solar installation, a mere INR 7,000 crore is the domestic value added to manufacture solar modules.
  • The PLI scheme has given fresh life to indigenisation efforts and committed ~INR 19,000 crore to solar manufacturing. In this decade, these investments can support exports and domestic value additions over INR 75,000 crore (at current prices).
  • Boosting domestic value and job creation in clean energy would strongly mitigate concerns associated with disruptions in the global supply chain and loss of livelihoods in the economy.
Way forward
  • With falling renewable energy and storage prices, decision-makers need a transparent assessment of the long-term opportunity costs of locking ourselves into conventional power sources to meet near-term power needs.
  • They must prioritise low-cost and affordable electricity for all segments of the economy as this is a prerequisite for a flourishing economy and improving standards of living.
  • This will then become the plank for more aggressive decarbonisation commitments in the years ahead.
Source- The Hindu

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