Chhattisgarh receives three national awards for excellent work in power sector

Chhattisgarh was awarded with three national awards for excellent work in power sector. Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh congratulated the Principal Secretary of energy department Aman Kumar Singh and all the officials and employees of the department for this important achievement.

Chhattisgarh has received the first prize in power sector for excellent work in investment and developing infrastructures, while the Principal Secretary of State Energy Department Aman Kumar Singh received the prize of country’s best bureaucrat for doing excellent work in power sector. The prizes were awarded in a programme organised by a prestigious magazine of power sector ‘Inertia’ in New Delhi on Friday night. The residential commissioner of Chhattisgarh BV Uma Devi received these prizes.

The second prize Pradeep Pimple Grass Root Innovation Award was given to Chhattisgarh government’s public sector unit Akshya Urja Vikas Nigam Abhikaran (CREDA) for making water filtration technique plant with the use of solar energy. This award was received by superintending engineer RK Shankar on behalf of CREDA.

It is to be noted that under the leadership of Dr Raman Singh, various appreciable works have been done in the field of power production and distribution in Chhattisgarh state. Chhattisgarh has become first power-cut free state in the country since 2008.

Chhattisgarh received the other prize by the jury in power sector for surplus production, progressing to achieve the target of 70,0000 megawatt power production till the end of 12th Five Year Plan and availability of electricity in 97 percent rural area of the state. State energy department has received the investment proposals of Rs 92 lakh crore. The T & D deficit has been brought down from 26.72 percent of 19.79 percent.

Battle of storms-2 : Wind energy sector an overview

Wind energy was one of the earliest renewable energy to come up in India .It started in early 1990’s in southern most state of India in Tamilnadu. From there it went on to increase its portfolio and later spread in Maharashtra and Gujarat. It not only attracted many investors because of its accelerated depreciation but also made textile giant manufacturer Tulasi Tanti to start a wind firm Suzlon ,which is now the fifth largest supplier of wind turbine in the world.

Vestas played an important role in supplying wind turbines in 1990’s and very few players were there in the market including suzlon which was founded in 1995.There were more investors attracted in building new wind farms because of its accelerated depreciation from which they earned more profits. Wind farms were success and there was nothing to pull its growth as Energy hungry India was planning to utilize its wind potential. State governments were supportive as it not only satisfied the energy needs but also created many jobs.

In 2000’s it reached the peak with India becoming the 5th largest wind power capacity in the world and by 2006 Indian wind turbine supplier Suzlon captured 7.7% of the market share in global wind turbine sales.

Glory days were then hit by recession and there were also many problems wind farms were facing regarding the maintenance. Wind power moved from a fringe source of power to one of the world’s fastest-growing sources of new electricity, scrutiny did increase along with that. The short-term outlook for renewable energy, especially wind power, was clouded by the credit crunch and the economic slowdown, turbine makers’ woes only fueled the flames.

Suzlon were hit badly due to recession and had severe cash flow problems which also made them to shut down their plant in Pondicherry and its losses piled up to 11000 crores. Suzlon got plenty of attention for its turbine troubles and it suffered from turbine breakdowns, cracked blades, and turbine underperformance that drove customers to cancel orders but it wasn’t entirely the only one . All turbine makers have at one time or another have wrestled with technical glitches in the complex machines.

Suzlon’s market share then decreased in India from 58% to 35% with new firms entering and capturing the market.Spanish wind turbine makers Gamesa was one of them which captured 10%.

Another big shock faced by wind turbine makers was the cancellation of accelerated depreciation(AD) and generation based incentives(GBI) in 2012.With the removal of the benefits, the wind sector in 2012-2013 saw investments falling to Rs.10,200 crores while in the preceding year, it was close to 19,000 crores.

The government change at the centre brought back the accelerated depreciation and GBI which made the wind farms to launch new plans and products . Gamesa inaugurated a new production facility at Chennai for its G114-2MW turbine last week. Suzlon launched world’s largest 120 m wind turbine this month, Tata power renewable energy announced that it is on talks to invest in wind firms soon. In addition to all these there are 3 new states identified on the India’s wind energy map .With all the above news its time to say that the wind firms is all set for the battle . For now let us gear up and watch the battle of storms which was not look like the 1990’s which looker more like monopolist market. The battle is getting more hotter ,stronger and windier.

India’s renewable energy share is increasing everyday with solar parks booming and WtE(waste to energy ) peeping up , wind energy sounds like the old war horse .Which would lead the battle in the renewable energy portfolio? Only time will tell.


Source:

indianrenewable.blogspot.in
Avinash Sridharan

How are Supercritical Boilers different from Subcritical Boilers?

Supercritical power plants were in service from the late fifties. But the technology did not really take off due to problems of reliability especially from the metallurgical aspect.

The single most important factor that determines the use of higher and higher pressure and temperatures are the availability of materials to withstand these conditions.

 Increases in operating pressure and temperatures have to go hand in hand with developments in metallurgy.

With more than 600 units in service the reliability issue seems to be resolved. Supercritical units are the standard for future power plants in many countries including China.

What are the key differences between the subcritical units and the Supercritical units?

Efficiency

The main advantage and the reason for a higher pressure operation is the increase in the thermodynamic efficiency of the Rankine cycle.

Large Subcritical thermal power plants with 170 bar and 540 / 540 ° C (SH / RH) operate at an efficiency of 38 %. Supercritical units operating at 250 bar and 600/615 ° C can have efficiencies in the range of 42 %.

Ultra supercritical units at 300 bar and 615 / 630 °C will still increase the efficiency up to 44 %.Increase in efficiency directly lead to reductions in unit cost of power and CO2 emissions.

Operational Flexibility

Most of the Supercritical units use the once through technology. This is ideal for sliding pressure operation which has much more flexibility in load changes and controlling the power grid.

However this also requires more sensitive and quick responding control systems.

Evaporation End Point
In subcritical units the drum acts as a fixed evaporation end point. The furnace water walls act as the evaporator. Not so in the case of a supercritical unit. The evaporation end point can occur in various levels of the furnace depending on the boiler load. The percentage of Superheat in supercritical units is higher than subcritical units. Because of this the furnace tubes act more as superheaters than waterwalls. This necessitates the use of higher grade of materials like alloy steels in the furnace.

Heat transfer Area

Higher steam temperatures in supercritical units results in a lesser differential temperature for heat transfer. Because of this heat transfer areas required are higher than subcritical units.
Higher Superheat steam temperatures entering the HP turbine also mean higher reheater inlet temperatures which again results in a higher heat transfer areas.

Water chemistry

In supercritical units the water entering the boiler has to be of extremely high levels of purity. Supercritical boilers do not have a steam drum that separates the steam and the water. If the entering water quality is not good, carry over of impurities can result in turbine blade deposits.

Materials

Supercritical power plants use special high grade materials for the boiler tubes. The turbine blades are also of improved design and materials. In fact, the very increase in higher pressure and temperature designs are dependendent on the development of newer and newer alloys and tube materials.

The aim of the industry is to achieve power plant efficiencies in the range of 50 %.

Obama plan to 'Power Africa' gets off to a dim start

Barack Obama last year told a cheering crowd in Cape Town that a $7 billion plan to "Power Africa" would double electricity output on the world's poorest continent and bring "light where currently there is darkness".

A year later, the U.S. president's flagship project for Africa has already achieved 25 percent of its goal to deliver 10,000 megawatts of electricity and bring light to 20 million households and businesses, according to its annual report.

But the five-year plan has not yet delivered the power.

Power Africa has not measured its progress by counting actual megawatts added to the grid but promises of additional power made in deals it says it helped negotiate, according to sources inside the project and documents seen by Reuters.

Some projects facilitated by Power Africa -- a program operated by the U.S. aid agency USAID -- were under way years before the scheme's inception, others are still in the planning stage.

It is unclear how much of the $7 billion Obama pledged has actually been spent or if a further $20 billion in private sector investment commitments will materialize.

"Saying you've met targets on projects that might never happen or taking the credit for projects that have been worked on for years makes me uncomfortable," a source working on Power Africa told Reuters. "It's misleading."

Obama's pledge to double power generation in Africa within five years looked highly ambitious from the start. Per capita electricity output in Sub-Saharan Africa has been flat for three decades because most promised power plants never get built.

"We're dealing with megawatts on paper, rather than on the grid," a second source working on the project said.

"Is that really what Obama promised?"

The first African-American U.S. president, the son of a Kenyan father, Obama has often been criticized for a lukewarm engagement in Africa, consisting more of words than deeds.

"WE'RE LIKE A PHARMACIST"

The 48 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, with a combined population of 800 million, produce roughly the same amount of power as Spain, a country of just 46 million. This constrains Africa's growth and keeps hundreds of millions in poverty.

Power Africa coordinator Andrew Herscowitz told Reuters there had been some confusion about the role of the program. He said it was always intended to "expedite transactions", facilitating private investment rather than handing out aid.

Herscowitz said Power Africa was there to help the private sector deliver electricity and it had already negotiated commitments from companies worth $20 billion, although he did not know how much of this money had been spent.

"We’re like a pharmacist, where people come to us, we reach out to people and figure out what is needed," he said.

"In some projects we may have a lot of involvement and in some we have very little involvement."

Foreign companies sign billions of dollars of agreements with African governments to build infrastructure every year, although a large number never get built.

In April 2011, the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corp., a government aid agency involved in Power Africa, signed a $350 million deal to "revitalize" Malawi's power sector.

More than three years on, 1.7 percent of that money has been spent, according to the programmer's website, which gives no detail on progress on the ground.

Memoranda of understanding Power Africa signed this year with its six focus countries -- Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Liberia and Ghana -- contain less than $100 million of financial commitments targeted at specific countries, most of which is for consultants.

U.S. consultancy Tetra Tech won a $64 million contract and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Africa Governance Initiative was given a $3 million deal.

As with many African aid projects, rights groups have criticized Power Africa as mostly being a vehicle to subsidize U.S. companies.

Documents show $5 billion out of the $7 billion pledged is for loans for U.S. exports from the government's Export-Import Bank (EXIM) and Overseas Private Investment Corp. (OPIC).

TURN ON THE LIGHTS

"It’s absolutely not true. Power Africa is an opportunity to turn on the lights for millions of Africans by taking investment from all over the world," Herscowitz said.

Herscowitz rejected suggestions Power Africa merely tapped into existing projects, highlighting a 5 megawatt "NextGen" solar project in Tanzania and a 30 megawatt biomass scheme in Kenya which he said "didn't exist before Power Africa".

The NextGen project website, however, says a power purchase agreement for the solar project was signed in January 2013, six months before Power Africa was launched.

It is by no means guaranteed that the Power Africa program, which has an initial five-year mandate, will continue or be seen as a priority when Obama's final term ends in two years, U.S. government sources told Reuters.

In addition, the investment banks EXIM and OPIC are fighting for their survival in Congress, where Obama's Democratic Party was severely weakened in mid-term elections this month.

In a change of tack, the U.S. government said this month it wants to partner with China on improving power in Africa.Meanwhile, corruption in the countries that Power Africa operates in remains a problem.

Nigeria's state oil company was accused last year by the then central bank governor of withholding $20 billion in oil funds due to the government, while Tanzania's parliament is currently reviewing a report on graft in its energy sector.

Steps soon to help coal, natural gas-based power plants: Piyush Goyal

NEW DELHI: The government will shortly take steps to address all fiscal and fuel hurdles faced by coal and natural gas based power plants so that people get affordable and uninterrupted supply, Power, Coal and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters in a hurriedly called news conference late on Wednesday which was also attended by Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

"The government will look at all possible options to provide fuel to power projects with an aim to keep tariff low for the utilities and end users," said Goyal. He said banks are on board to discuss the possibilities of relaxing lending norms to power sector.

"We are in discussions with banks to extend the term of payment for power plants to prevent them from turning non performing assets," said Goyal. The ministers held meetings with stakeholders in the power sector, who are facing an acute fuel shortage and are under pressure from banks to repay loans. "Today's meeting was a precursor to final decisions which will be taken very fast," he said.

The government has already announced plan to auction coal blocks and hopes to double the country's coal output to meet the fuel shortage. Thousands of megawatts of new power generation capacity is idling or operating at suboptimal capacity because Coal India, the state monopoly, could not keep pace with rising demand.

Goyal stated that the government will try to increase domestic gas and coal output for power projects. "We have looked at all possible options to address the problems of gas-based power projects. We have already initiated the coal block auction process and are looking at natural gas-based plants to utilise stranded capacity with an aim to keep the tariff low," Goyal said.

The power sector is also waiting for a financial package as companies are unable to repay loans because they don't get fuel to operate their plants. In some cases, plant construction could not be completed because banks are reluctant to lend to power projects. A panel of experts has recommended a series of measures to help the sector. The government is working on big-ticket financial reforms for about 1,30,000 mw thermal and hydropower power plants worth over Rs 6,00,000 crore that are hit by severe funds crunch while continuing to face cost and time overruns.