The Hindu Business Line : Energising power sector

NUCLEAR POWER AND wind energy: Two sides of the same coin as power generation goes. The first is slowly gaining currency in India but still has a lot of detractors mainly on account of the opacity of safety issues. The second is an attractive option for its environment-friendliness but one which power sector managers are not sold on mainly because they feel that being seasonal, wind energy does not help in grid planning and management. Yet, both sources are slowly but surely increasing their contribution to the total power generation in India.

It is in this context that two recent unconnected developments have to be viewed. The country's nuclear power establishment has said that it will upgrade to more powerful 700 MWe-plus reactors from the 220 MWe generators it now uses. This is expected to result in a 20 per cent reduction in capital cost, which in turn will lead to a 10-15 per cent reduction in electricity tariff. The second, and not too so well-publicised, development pertained to the wind energy. The Minister for Non-Conventional Energy Sources, Mr Vilas Muttemwar, has said that a capacity addition target of 1,500 MW has been fixed for the Tenth Plan period against the 730 MW added in the Ninth. With about 3,000 MW, India ranks fifth, after Germany, the US, Spain and Denmark, in installed wind power capacity. There is enormous scope for increasing the wind energy capacity, and it can form an important part of a diverse portfolio that is needed for a stable and reliable energy sector. Of the country's total installed capacity of about 113,500 MW, thermal power (coal, gas or diesel) accounts for as much as 70 per cent followed by hydro (26 per cent), nuclear power (about 2.5 per cent) and wind energy the rest. It would seem obvious for power sector managers to get a more balanced mix of generation, especially with the growing concerns about greenhouse gases and the need to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels.

A major attraction of nuclear power is the low fuel cost compared with coal, oil or gas. There is also some move towards involving the private sector and the State-owned National Thermal Power Corporation in nuclear power generation, of course after taking all safety precautions. Wind power requires a greater push with stable incentive regimes. Substantial progress has been made in the wind energy technology with major turbine manufacturers in the country bringing in generators of higher capacities — of 1.6 MW and 2 MW. While a detailed mapping of potential wind energy sites needs to be done, and constantly updated, governments must also encourage quicker adaptation of technologies available elsewhere in the world. Research and development in wind power is an integral part of the sector's development and it is here that the Government could see whether such developments as offshore wind energy projects, as those in Europe and some that are coming up in the US, can be brought into India. The power sector managers need to also ensure a diverse generation capacity to insulate against volatile fluctuations in fossil fuel prices just as much as they need to ensure that adding capacity does not lag behind demand growth.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Energising power sector

India as a brand

Rewind the tape, please

Are NBFCs being hounded out?

Event risk: To hedge or not to hedge

WTO completes a decade

On fringe taxes and all that — Rollback is not a dirty word

Budget proposals

Lalu will be back