Future Planning, Development Implementation and Challenges in Power Sector
Power requirement :
India at present is 12% short of its peak demand power requirements. Thus, we have to plan to develop power to meet the following requirements for the future :
- Power needed for the present deficit.
- Power required for the needs of increased population.
- Power needed for industrialization and projected 8% economic growth upto 2020 AD. The projected growth of power sector is estimated to be 4.85% to 5.15% yearly.
It was estimated to add 1,00,000 MW capacity by 2012 but the generation capacity is likely to increase by 78700 MW only upto the end of 11 five year plan ending 2012. In this period about Rs. 7,50,000 crores are likely to be invested in power sector out of which Rs. 4,80,000 crores are for power generation and remainder for transmission and distribution sector.
Reasons for not able to moot targets :
India has failed to meet the planned targets in power sector both in 10 and 11° five year plans due to following :
- Delay in award of projects by Govt. and clearances by Environmental and forestry departments.
- Shortage of availability of equipment by BHEL. Now the European and Chinese markets are being explored.
- Inadequacy of availability of fund and faulty project planning.
- Delay in land acquisition and other clearances particularly for hydro projects.
- Non-availability of clean technology i.e. supercritical technology needed for low emissions.
- Shortage of trained technical man power for specific type of power plants at all levels.
Problems of material and technology for future power development :
(I) Cool based thermal power plants : Domestic coal reserves are in abundance in India but it is inferior in quality and efficiency of mining is low With private participation in coal mining. It is expected that the production efficiency will increase Also, India and foreign companies are looking for buying the coal mines abroad like Indonesia, Australia, Africa etc and to import coal for present and future requirements.
Economical imported coal is the priority of Got with clean technology. It is cheaper near the coastal areas.
(II) Nuclear power generation : Development of male power plant has many challenges with regard to access to nuclear technology, availability of fuel, safety and environmental considerations.
Natural gas based thermal plants India has limited availability of domestic gas. The cost of LNG is high. India is looking for new passes and it is in talk with foreign countries like Iran, Quatar and Australia for its long term needs.
(III) Wind power : It is not suitable for bare load plants. In India we have moderate wind pattern. Though it is only suitable for few locations in India but we have potential of 65000 MW power generation.
(IV) Hydro-electric power generation : Development of hydro power generation takes very long period. Apart from this, there are problems of land acquisition environmental clearances, long transmission lines, both technical and labour man power etc. It involves court cases and law order problems. Lot of work is being done in this direction by NHPC and state agencies.
(V) Other problems-Infrastructure, equipment etc :
- India needs to develop infrastructure in terms of road and rail transportation which is still inadequate.
- Transmission and distribution losses are high, at present being about 306 to 33. We need to reduce these losses and develop transmission lines which are inadequate at present and also for future development of power.
- Shortage of equipments for power generation and environmental equipment.