The rooftop solar segment grew by 81 per cent in 2016-17 over 2015-16. As opposed to other rooftop-rich countries that have grown on the back of high capacity addition in the residential rooftop segment, the Indian market has seen greater growth in the commercial and industrial rooftop solar segments. As of March 2017, the installed rooftop solar capacity in India stood at 1,396 MW, of which 42.2 per cent or 590 MW was in the industrial consumer segment, 22.4 per cent or 313 MW in the commercial segment and 21.7 per cent or 303 MW in the residential segment, while the rest was installed on government buildings. Together, the commercial and industrial segments account for 65 per cent of the Indian rooftop solar market.
Apart from being the largest source of electricity supply in the country, with over 75 per cent share in the total power generation, coal is also the largest contributor to industrial emissions. In India, the overall CO2 emissions increased by almost 40 per cent between 2011-12 and 2016-17, from around 638 million tonnes (mt) to 888 mt.
Flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) is one of the key technology solutions used at thermal power plants (TPPs) to cut down emissions. It helps in reducing suspended particulate matter (SPM) emissions along with sulphur oxide (SOx) emissions and is, therefore, given preference over other emission control systems. It has emerged as one of the key technology solutions to be adopted by TPPs to comply with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change’s (MoEFCC) tightened emission norms issued in December 2015.
Before the new environment norms were put in place in December 2015, there were no rules to control nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions at thermal power plants (TPPs) in India, despite the fact that coal-based power plants account for a significant share of the annual industrial NOx emissions. These emissions were as high as 30 per cent in 2014-15. The current standards require TPPs installed before December 31, 2003 to limit their NOx emissions at 600 milligrams per cubic metre (mg/Nm3). The standards are more stringent for newer plants, with the levels set at 300 mg/Nm3 for plants installed between December 31, 2003 and December 31, 2016; and 100 mg/Nm3 for those installed after December 31, 2016. The new standards are in line with the global standards: NOx emission limits in China, Japan and the US are 50 mg/Nm3, 200 mg/Nm3 and 110 mg/Nm3 respectively.
Indian coal has a high ash content of 35-45 per cent, and its combustion causes significant air pollution. The practice of surface mining or open cut mining for coal extraction in India contributes to the high ash content as this technology has limitations with regard to the separation of impurities from coal. Due to this, a significant amount of ash is transported along with coal over long distances, resulting in high transportation costs. In some cases, the quality of coal also deteriorates with deeper excavation being carried out inside a mine. Owing to the high ash content in run-of-the-mine (RoM) coal, its disposal and handling also become challenging. Further, higher maintenance and capital costs increase the per unit cost of the coal. In light of these challenges due to poor coal quality, there is a need to adopt coal washing. Coal washing is a process of refining or cleaning coal undertaken in a coal washery or a coal preparation plant.
Distributed generation (DG) refers to a variety of technologies that generate electricity near the end users. Some of the DG technologies are solar panels, and combined heat and power (CHP). They may serve a single structure (such as a home or an industry), or a major industrial facility, a large hospital, or a college campus, as part of a microgrid (a smaller grid that is also tied into the larger electricity delivery system). These systems may or may not be connected to the electric grid. When connected to the electric utility’s low voltage distribution lines, DG systems can support the delivery of clean, reliable power to additional customers and help reduce transmission and distribution losses.
The absence of a hydropower policy that comprehensively addresses the woes of this segment has been one of the biggest areas of contention for the industry.
Private transmission companies have time and again raised concerns regarding the lack of a level-playing field in the segment. According to industry estimates, since the introduction of competitive bidding in 2011, of the 101 transmission projects identified for bidding, 47 have been awarded on a tariff- based competitive bidding TBCB basis, while 58 have been awarded through the cost-plus mechanism.
After a long lull, there is some visibility on the power purchase agreement (PPA) front for power gencos. In October this year, the first round of PPAs were signed under the government’s medium-term power procurement scheme. Power trader PTC India signed medium-term PPAs for 1,900 MW of coal-based power capacity with seven companies and five states.
In September 2018, the Power System Corporation of India (POSOCO) published a consultation paper on “Security Constrained Economic Dispatch (SCED) of ISGS (interstate generating station) Pan India”. Through this paper, it aims to find an optimal solution for minimising the total production costs of all thermal ISGSs without disturbing grid security, and honouring the existing generation scheduling procedure.
The pace of hydropower capacity addition in recent years has been rather slow, particularly in the north-eastern region, which has a significant untapped hydro potential. Central sector PSU North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO), which has been playing a strategic role in meeting 40 per cent of the region’s power demand through thermal and hydro projects, recently marked an important milestone. After a long gap, the genco commissioned two hydropower projects in the region – the 60 MW Tuirial hydroelectric power project (HEP) in Mizoram and the 110 MW Pare hydropower project in Arunachal Pradesh.
The World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” initiative ranks countries on 10 parameters. “Getting Electricity” is one of these. India’s rank improved to 24 on this parameter, in the recently released “Ease of Doing Business Report 2019”. Utilities in Delhi and Mumbai were surveyed for arriving at the rankings.
Power quality refers to both the extent of deviation or distortion in pure supply waveform and continuity in supply. Any significant deviation in the magnitude, frequency, waveform or symmetry of line voltages is a potential power quality problem. Poor power quality not only causes performance degradation and premature failure of electrical equipment but also results in increased system losses and financial losses. Although various electricity regulatory commissions’ (ERCs) regulations, such as supply/grid code and standards of performance (SoP), cover parameters pertaining to power quality, these are not uniform across states and do not cover all aspects related to power quality standards and its monitoring mechanism.
In September 2018, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) published a discussion paper on “Re-designing Ancillary Services Mechanism in India”. Based on the international and national experiences with ancillary services, the paper proposes to transform the existing administered ancillary services mechanism in India to a market-based one. The objective is to increase the ambit of potential providers of such services at efficient costs and enhanced reliability of the grid.
In July 2018, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) passed a landmark order on “Pilot Project on 05-Minute Scheduling, Metering, Accounting and Settlement for Thermal/Hydro, and on Hydro as Fast Response Ancillary Services (FRAS)”. This is in support of the previous orders passed by the regulator to ensure the smooth integration of 175 GW of renewable energy generation by 2022.
On April 28, 2018, India’s last unelectrified village, Leisang in Manipur, comprising 14 households was electrified, marking the achievement of the 100 per cent village electrification target. Village electrification in the last couple of years had been particularly challenging since villages mostly in hilly and difficult terrain remained to be electrified. The feat has attracted international attention with several developing countries including Syria, Jordan as well as countries in sub-Saharan Africa looking to collaborate with Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) Limited to seek its assistance in their electrification initiatives.
The country’s power distribution utilities are grappling with the challenge of high aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses coupled with an increasing power demand. These losses have a significant impact on the operational performance and profitability of discoms. Smart meters are an ideal option to control these losses and help supply reliable power to consumers.
The role of metering in India has evolved significantly over the years. Besides helping utilities in energy accounting and revenue management, it plays a crucial role in the reduction of power losses, integration of renewable energy and load management. The key technologies being adopted by the utilities are prepaid meters, net meters and smart meters. Although these have been in place for some time, utilities continue to grapple with challenges such as meter tampering, data handling and communication network interoperability.
Accurate metering and billing, and better load management are the top priorities for power distribution utilities. Therefore, they have implemented advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and adopted automatic meter reading (AMR). AMI allows two-way communication with the installation of smart meters. This not only helps the utility in better network planning and load management, but also provides consumers greater control over their electricity consumption and energy bills. Meanwhile, AMR, through which meter reading is remotely recorded without any human interference, has gained wide acceptability among utilities given its benefits of accurate billing, and faster detection of meter tampering and theft, and better network management.
Net metering can play a key role in the uptake of rooftop solar installations. India has a 100 GW solar capacity target by 2022, of which 40 GW is to come from rooftop solar and the remaining from grid-connected projects. However, as of March 2018, India’s rooftop solar capacity stood at around 1.5 GW, which is significantly lower than the target.
Meter testing is done to assess the quality of meters to ensure their reliability. Meeting the established technical and functional standards requires testing to be undertaken at various stages. As meters of different technologies and designs are in use, standardisation is of paramount importance to ensure uniformity, resolve interoperability issues and make the process of meter testing more streamlined. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has defined metering standards to help undertake a comprehensive assessment of meters. While some of the standards for conventional meters, including IS 13779 and IS 14697, have been in existence for almost 20 years now, those for smart meters (IS 16444) were established in 2015 and amended in 2017. Prior to this, different states were issuing different specifications for smart meters and it was difficult to test them on uniform technical requirements. There is a need to test the smart meters being installed for assessing their performance and ensuring compliance with the standards.
The protection of power systems and equipment from external weather phenomenon such as lightning is critical for their smooth functioning and the safety of operating personnel. Lightning strikes can cause immense damage to electronic equipment. Overvoltage damage caused by spikes and transients due to lightning, utility switching, isolation arcing, electrical motor cycling, or any other sudden change in the electrical power flow in alternating current (AC) lines is responsible for a third of all outages. Within a fraction of a second, transient overvoltages can reach up to 6,000 volts in a well insulated 230/400 volt power distribution system, which is over eight times the level that can be sustained by electronic items such as computers, data communication networks, plant sensors, critical medical equipment and programmable logic controllers. Any damage to these systems can severely impact domestic consumers as well as critical industrial, commercial and government establishments. It is, therefore, imperative for utilities and consumers to deploy surge protection devices (SPDs) and earthing systems to ensure continuity in business operations.
One of the most pressing concerns for India’s e-mobility plans has been the lack of easy availability of public charging infrastructure for electric vehicles (EVs).
Reducing emissions from coal-based power plants has been one of the key focus areas of the government. To this end, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) had in December 2015 come out with standards for emissions of sulphur oxide (SOx), nitrogen oxides, mercury and suspended particulate matter (SPM) by thermal power plants (TPPs). Flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) was identified as one of the key technology solutions to be used at TPPs to comply with these standards.
In the process of delivering electricity from the point of generation to the end-consumer, transformers perform the essential task of managing the electricity voltage at various stages. While power transformers are used in the transmission network at higher voltages (400 kV, 200 kV, 110 kV, 66 kV, 33 kV) and are generally rated above 200 MVA, distribution transformers are used in the distribution network at low voltages (11 kV, 6.6 kV, 3.3 kV, 440 V, 230 V) and are rated at up to 200 MVA. With high investments in the transmission segment and ongoing reforms in the distribution segment, the transformer industry is on a growth trajectory. Besides increasing their manufacturing capacity, Indian transformer manufacturers have matured in terms of technology over the years. Today, they are capable of producing transformers of up to 1,200 MVA, the highest transmission system voltage in the world. A shift in the energy mix due to the increasing share of renewables and a growing focus on smart infrastructure have expanded the market for smart and digital transformers. Power Line presents an overview of the transformer market…
