OPEN ACCESS TO TRANSMISSION SYSTEM

Private Sector will have large role in capacity addition. But there are many risks that they encounter, the foremost of them being evacuation of the generation.

Electricity Act 2003 mandates that the CTU shall provide non-discriminatory open access to its transmission system for use by any licensee or generating company on payment of the transmission charges.

At present the Power Grid Corporation of India has been designated by the concerned authorities (under the Act) as the Central Transmission Unit (CTU)

When Private Power Generators approach the CTU for providing them with Open Access to the transmission system for evacuation of power from their proposed power plants, the former is asking the generator to identify the Licensee and the point of drawal.

For the Private Generator obtaining commitment of open access of transmission facility is a pre-requisite for Financial Closure. This is a requirement that forms the corner stone and forms an activity the kick starts the project schedule. Identification of power purchasers as also the points of drawal of power cannot be finalised at that stage for the reasons given below:

The Government of India had issued on 6th Jan., 2006 Tariff Policy that states “All future requirement of power should be procured competitively by distribution licensees”

This Order “forbids” the distribution licensees from even considering entertaining any proposal from private generators about extending a commitment to purchase power from such generators.

This has become a “Catch 22″ type situation.

The Authorities who are keen to see that Private Generators to come forward to supplement the efforts of the Government agencies to add to the installed generating capacity during the Eleventh Plan (2007-2012) should look into this anomaly and correct the same.

PGCIL is a commercial entity and is concerned on the financial viability of their investments and would not be able to take risks while investing.

It should be the responsibility of the Planning Commission of India to provide for necessary and adequate funds as part of the Plan funding to cater to the augmentation of transmission elements to meet the Power Evacuation requirements of the Private Generators. The entire funding can be routed through Central Electricity Authority and the implementation agency could be PGCIL.

Regards.

Remember, a large solar array of 20 sqm of good 25% efficiency, which I work with at Northwestern University, makes barely enough energy to run even a few fans. Furthermore, remember that on a cloudy day, solar cells still have a 30% efficiency.

Winpower on the other hand, is largely misinterpretted in terms of capacity. Granted a turbine may be rated at 1MW, it will RARELY work at that level. a reduction in windspeeds from 8 to 6 m/s will reduce efficency to less than half! Furthermore, with large variations in windspeeds, how is this wind supposed to provide a constant energy source? sometimes these turbines produce zero energy for weeks because wind is too low.

Nuclear technology does not depend on technology my friend, we have all of that. What we do not have is the uranium, and even this can be obtained. However, if you look at the situation in Japan, which despite being a technologically advanced country, it still has poor safety levels.

Do not venture down the nuke-alley, the uranium mines are drying up, and the easy to access uranium
will last just few decades with todays use. The idea of Peak-oil is happening these days, so even using money
this way is “a shot in the dark”. Rather take “a shot in the ligth”, as in the sun, that is viable for all
future…..

Debajit, excellent question. I don’t know the answer to that though when I went through my notes, it seemed like they meant percentage of combined turnover. But I cannot be sure, since I am purely repeating numbers I heard. I have nothing on me in terms of stats to challenge those numbers with.

What is your take on decentralized, off-grid power generation? On the transmission loss front, the loss incured merely as a matter of electrons being stripped away can be avoided by going for an off-grid model, yes? Or do you think scale is the name of the game?

I am raising this point because, average distribution losses(quantified by Aggregate Technical & Commercial Losses) would be of the order of 40% in India. Even Delhi, after nearly 4 years of privatization, clocked about 40% AT&C losses last financial year. Though some utilities are doing better (WBSEB at about 25%, CESC at 16%, BSES Bombay at about 14% etc.), there is absolutely no sanctity to the figures released by many state utilities, since the subsidy they receive is directly proportional to the loss reduction they achieve (or rather are able to show in their books).

Ensuring lowering of distribution losses through better enforcement and collections by the SEBs, backed by a strong political will, would help narrow the energy deficit considerably by promoting efficient use of energy (e.g. use of energy guzzling coil-based electric stoves for cooking in most households indulging in power theft). It would also decrease the subsidy burden of the government. Once distribution losses go down, retail tariffs would come down. Flipping the logic, it would mean, creating a buffer to absorb any tariff hike due to rise in cost of generation. Since tariff rates tend to be downward inflexible, it would increase the viability of alternate fuels, which are more expensive than conventional fuels. A favorable government policy at that juncture (an incentive to power generation through alternate fuels or a disincentive to power generation through conventional fuels), would give a filip to the adoption of alternate fuels.

Concentrating on only increasing power generation capacity today, IMHO, will only add to the subsidy burden of the government and further deepen the crisis at our SEBs.