Indian government has taken many a good step to ensure quality (electric) power supply for all citizens, however lot of things were not properly publicised, in the recent past during question-answer sessions in the parliament those initiatives have been discussed in details. In this article, I am trying to present glimpses of those.
Indian power industry has come of age. However, ensuring 24X7 good quality power supply to all parts of such a big country is not so easy. Thus, many schemes or programmes are concomitantly under implementation. Here, I will focus on their present status.
Saubhagya Electrification Scheme
With a view to raising the standard of living of the people in the rural areas and poor urbanites of the country, the Government of India launched Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana – SAUBHAGYA in October, 2017 with the objective of achieving universal household electrification, by providing electricity connections to all un-electrified households in rural areas and all poor households in urban areas in the country. Salient features of the scheme were: i) providing last mile connectivity and electricity connections to all un-electrified households in rural areas; ii) providing Solar Photo Voltaic (SPV) based standalone systems for un-electrified households located in remote and inaccessible villages or habitations where grid extension is not feasible or cost effective; and iii) providing last mile connectivity and electricity connections to all remaining economically poor un-electrified households in urban areas.
Around 19.09 lakh un-electrified households, identified before 31.03.2019, which were unwilling earlier but later expressed willingness to get electricity connection, received sanction later. A total of 2.817 crore households were electrified since the launch of SAUBHAGYA, up to 31.03.2021. Even thereafter some states reported 11.84 lakh households remained to be electrified, against which states reported that 4.43 lakh households have been electrified. Accordingly, so far, a total 2.86 crore households have been electrified. State-wise details are in Table 1. The scheme has been closed on 31st March, 2022.
Status of DDUGJY
The Government of India launched ‘Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana’ (DDUGJY), in December, 2014 for strengthening the distribution systems including separation of agriculture and non-agriculture feeders, strengthening and augmentation of sub-transmission & distribution infrastructure, metering of distribution transformers/feeders/consumers and electrification of villages across the country. As reported by the States, all the inhabited un-electrified villages as per Census, 2011 stood electrified by 28th April, 2018 across the country under DDUGJY. A total of 18,374 villages were electrified under the scheme. The scheme was closed on 31. 03. 2022.
Out of the total 18,374 villages electrified across the country, 3281 villages were electrified in the State of Odisha.
Smart meter national programme
The GoI has launched Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) vide OM dtd. 20.07.2021 with an outlay of Rs. 3,03,758 crores with an estimated Gross Budgetary Support of Rs. 97,631 crores. The scheme aims to reduce the AT&C losses to PAN India levels of 12-15% and ACS-ARR gap to zero by 2024-25.
The scheme has two parts: Part-A includes upgradation of distribution infrastructure and Pre-paid Smart Metering & System Metering and Part-B covers Training & Capacity Building and other Enabling & Supporting Activities.
Under Part-A, installation of 25 crore Smart Meters is envisaged across the country. Implementation model for smart metering is TOTEX (i.e., CAPEX+OPEX) under DBFOOT model and OPEX payments to AMISP are linked with Service Level Agreement (SLA). This approach ensures end-to-end responsibility of AMISP for delivery of services during the entire life cycle of the project.
Along with installation of pre-paid Smart metering and the associated Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), which goes with its installation, System metering at Feeder and Distribution Transformer level with communicating feature would also be taken up simultaneously in PPP Mode – so that the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) can be enforced to facilitate proper energy accounting.
The objectives of AMI are remote meter reading for error free data, network problem identification, load profiling, energy audit and partial load curtailment in place of load shedding.
Currently, the DISCOMS are in process of tendering and award of sanctioned smart metering works.A Model Standard Bidding Documents (SBD) for implementation of Smart Metering projects in the country has been prepared and released for adoption by the States or Discoms for nationwide rollout of smart meters under Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS). The SBD covers the detailed clauses for data protection of consumers.
Focus on reducing the share of coal-based generation
As on 31.01.2023, our coal (including lignite) based installed capacity stood 51.27% of the total installed capacity. Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has carried out generation expansion planning studies and published Draft National Electricity Plan (NEP) in 2022, which reveals that the share of coal (including lignite) based capacity in the total installed capacity of the country is likely to reduce to around 38.4% by March, 2027 and to around 28.7% by March, 2032. CEA’s studies also reveal that the share of coal based generation is likely to reduce to 58.9 % of the total generation mix by 2026-27 and to 49.9 % by 2031-32 from 72.3% as of March, 2022.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in August, 2016 approved the R&D Project for development of Advanced Ultra Super Critical (AUSC) Technology for Thermal Power Plants on a Mission Mode. The project was envisaged to be executed in two phases with total time duration of 7 years. Phase-I of the project (2½ years) envisages technology development while Phase-II (4½ years) envisages Technology Demonstration Plant (TDP) leading to the establishment of the technology. AUSC technology had targeted efficiency of 46%, which meant an increase from the contemporary efficiency levels of 38% (sub-critical units) and 40% (super-critical units).The phase-I (R&D phase) has been completed in
March, 2021.
Measures to ensure coal supply to the TPPs
As on 12.03.2023, the total coal stock available with the coal-based thermal power plants monitored in CEA is 33.5 Million Tonnes (MT), which is sufficient for an average of 12 days at a requirement of 85% Plant Load Factor (PLF).However, the union government has taken some vital steps to ensure adequate availability of coal.
To address the issues of coal supplies to power sector, an Inter-Ministerial Sub Group consisting of representatives from Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Railways, Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Coal India Limited (CIL) and Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) meet regularly to take various operational decisions to enhance supply of coal to thermal power plants as well as for meeting any contingent situations relating to power sector including to alleviate critical coal stock position in power plants. Also, an inter-ministerial secretary-level meeting is held regularly to monitor coal stocks.
The union government has issued the revised coal stocking norms, which mandate the power plants to maintain sufficient stock at all times to meet any contingent situation.
Power utilities have been importing coal considering their requirement as well as cost-economics. The Ministry of Power vide order dated 09.01.2023 directed Central/State GENCOs(power generation companies) and IPPs (independent power producers) to take necessary actions to import coal for blending at the rate of 6% by weight through a transparent competitive procurement – so as to have sufficient stock at their power plants for smooth operations till September, 2023.
Railways have taken steps to purchase one lakh wagons, and they will increase the network of goods trains (coal carriers) in coal mining areas.
Attempts to reduce dependence on coal
In NTPC Dadri coal-based thermal power plant, NTPC-NETRA conducted experiments to ascertain the impact of co-firing biomass on the Thermal Power Plants (TPPs). They have found that 5% to 10% of biomass can be safely co-fired with coal in TPPs without any adverse impact on the power plant. Following that, so far around 97,000 Metric Tonnes (MT) of agro-residue-based biomass has been co-fired in coal based thermal power plants, leading to reduction of more than 1.2 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) of carbon dioxide emissions.
Conclusion
Although as per IEA,India is the third-largest energy consuming country in the world and going to experience the largest increase in energy demand of any country worldwide over the next 20 years, our government’s meticulous effort to harness energy has started yielding fruits now. As on date, we have successfully developed surplus capacity of power generation, we have achieved a significant progress towards generating green energy, we have taken up good measures to reduce AT&C losses and so on. Although not discussed in this small article, we have taken steps to improve our energy storage capacity too. However, now we have to focus on improving our electric power transmission system.
By P. K. Chatterjee
