Thermal Power: India’s impetus to grow
Power Plant Summit 2008
At a time when India is targeting an annual growth rate of 8 to 9% in the next five years, it has become imperative for policy makers, not only to ensure new sources of energy but also to optimise the existing power plants. It was this theme which drew people from various sectors including government and private to explore the new avenues of energy efficiency during a two-day conference on 'Power Plant Summit 2008' organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here in New Delhi on Thursday.
Titled "Make Indian Thermal Power Plants World Class ", the conference was supported by giant players like NTPC, MIC and Ministry of Power, Government of India. The conference had prominent speakers from diverse organisations like BHEL, ABB, USAID, Storm Technology USA, Paragon Air Heater Technologies, SAS Global Corporations to name a few.
Speaking to thomex.com about the impact of global financial crisis on the Indian power sector, P Rajan, DGM, BHEL, Trichy said the meltdown may not impact India's energy sector. "Energy is one of the key areas and the govt has enough resources to ensure that projects are completed on time," Rajan said.
Rajan however, expressed his concern about the shortage of coal which has been dogging Indian thermal power plants for the past one year. "This is despite the fact that India has huge coal reserve. The problem can be attributed to the over-exploitation of some of the mines, which have overspent their lifespan. Now fresh mines need to be explored to meet the demand of the power generating units," Rajan said.
The existing power plants are looking for ways to optimise their operations and efficiency. Stephen K Storm whose company Storm Technologies provides efficiency solutions to Power Plant said, "There is tremendous scope in India in terms of improving the efficiency and productivity of its power plants. We already have couple of operations which we are bringing to effect successfully."
In fact, thermal power is the main source of electricity generation in India with installed capacity of 1,45,550 MW, comprising 53% of the total power output. But electricity shortage continues to be major concern despite the fact that India is the 6th largest power generator in the world. The present energy shortage in the country is calculated at 8% and during peak hours, it goes up to 12%.
India also ranks 5th in the world in terms of primary energy consumption, accounting 3.5% of the world's energy demand. Despite the overall increase in energy demand, per capita energy consumption in India is still very low compared to other developing countries.
Focussing and highlighting major concerns in the power sector, the conference also stressed that apart from capacity augmentation, there is an immense need to improve the performance of the individual thermal power generating units. The conference felt that the plant improvement will help in increasing power generation and thereby reducing the demand–supply gap, reduction in power generation cost and improving the competitiveness of Indian industry. This will also help, the conference felt, in reducing green house gas emissions and global warming.
The speakers also deliberated on various issues including emerging technologies in power plant which included Clean Coal Technologies (CCT), Coal washing and Beneficiation, Ultra super critical technology, Integrated gasification and combined cycle, performance improvement through application of latest energy saving devices, technologies & control system and improved condition monitoring system & technologies.
The prominent speakers who spoke on the occasion included V Raghuraman, Principal Advisor & Chief Coordinator, Energy, Environment and Natural Resources, CII; VP Joy, Joint Secretary (thermal) Ministry of Power; Douglas C Hengel, Deputy Assistant Secretary, US Department of State; DK Jain, Executive Director (Engineering Division), NTPC; P Rajan, DGM, BHEL, Trichy; Stephen Storm, Storm Technologies Inc; Thomas Weber and Brian Patrick, Director of Development, Jupiter Oxygen Corporation, USA; S Padmanabhan of USAID; Sandeep Shah of Clyde Bergemann India and Devesh Shah of ABB among others.
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