Report on India’s Renewable Electricity Roadmap 2030—Toward Accelerated Renewable Electricity Deployment

 

The “Report India’s Renewable Electricity Roadmap 2030—Toward Accelerated Renewable Electricity Deployment” was released at the Renewable Energy Global Investors Meet & Expo (RE-INVEST 2015).

The report was brought out by NITI Aayog with support of CII, Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation and RAP (Regulatory Assistance Project), a global non-profit group, talks about the current scenario of renewable energy in India and what needs to be done for its accelerated deployment to address energy security concerns.

Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of State (IC) for Coal, Power and New & Renewable Energy, lauded NITI Aayog for the report and said that it has instilled a lot of hope for following more ambitious targets. “We need to create an enabling environment with respect to clearance, land acquisition and other regulatory support.”

The Minister suggested that the land owners, who provide their land for setting up renewable energy projects, could be given a stake in the projects as an incentive. He urged NITI Aayog to help in creating some innovative model for the RE sector. He addressed the panelists while sitting in the audience.

Commenting on the launch of the report, Smt Sindhushree Khullar, CEO, NITI Aayog- Govt of India stated that this is the first initiative of the Aayog. “Energy and renewable energy is a core area in India. We need to see actual movement on whatever the report suggests about,” said Smt Khullar.

Mr Deepak Gupta, Senior Programme Manager- Power, Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, said that the report suggests possible roadmap to achieve ambitious targets in the renewable sector after assessing several best practices around the world.

The panelists were of the opinion that India needs to keep renewable energy as a matter of national importance. They suggested that the need of the hour is to move away from the current practice and make RE as an integral part of the power sector. For this a comprehensive national policy framework would be required for smoother renewable projects development in the country.

Mr Mackay Miller, Technology Innovation Analyst, NREL, congratulated the Indian government for its ambitious RE targets and intent to attain that goal. He suggested that there is need to think about policy and financing mechanism so that investments take place.

Smt Varsha Joshi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, lauded the report terming it as a good effort by the compilers. “It’s time that India has to look at RE as a resource across the states. There are a lot of things to be learned and a lot to be done,” she said.

Shri Sumant Sinha talked about thinking ‘out of the box’ to operationalise the issues highlighted in the report. “Why can’t we make renewable energy as the backbone of India’s electricity generation? We have to re-think our entire reliability on coal. Discoms are reluctant on buying renewable power against highly subsidised conventional power,” Shri Sinha noted.

Getting fund is seen as one of the major challenges. However, Shri Rajat Misra, VP, SBI Capital Markets Ltd is of the opinion that funding is not a constraint if there is good policy in place.

Shri SK Soonee, CEO, POSOCO, raised the issue of grid as one of the major hurdles in increasing renewable potential. The experts stressed that renewable energy could be the backbone of Indian power scenario provided existing issues are addressed. They objected to having coal as the preferred power choice just because it is available beneath the earth.

Smt Khullar stated that there is misconception in India that renewable energy is for rich. She asked everyone to be a part of this movement in renewable energy. “We are starting this journey with great hope and we should walk together to make it happen,” Smt Khullar concluded.

Source

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India's peak power deficit drops by 2.9 perc in November: Report

 

The country's peak power deficit shrank to 2.9 per cent in November from a month earlier as a delayed winter lowered electricity demand and utilities added generation capacity, according to a report.

The peak power deficit, or the shortage of electricity supply when demand is at the maximum, stood at 3,736 MW last month, provisional data with the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) showed. Electricity demand in November was 127,665 MW, of which 123,929 MW was met.

"Some capacity was added during the month and demand also dropped due to the delayed winter. These were the primary reasons for the lower deficit," a CEA official told PTI. Consumption of power during the winter months increases due to central heating in offices and malls, he said.

The peak electricity requirement in the northern region comprising Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan was 35,755 MW, of which 35,365 MW was met, a shortfall of 1.1 per cent, the CEA data showed.

Power supplied to the eastern states of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim, Odisha and Andaman and Nicobar Islands was 14,806 MW against demand of 15,016 MW. The region had a shortfall of 1.4 per cent.

The peak electricity shortage in the northeastern states of Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura and Nagaland was 3.9 per cent, with power demand at 2,046 MW and supply at 1,966 MW, it added. Demand in the southern states was 34,118 MW, of which 31,786 MW was made available - a deficit of 6.8 per cent.

In the western region, which includes Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, demand was reported at 40,730 MW, of which 40,006 MW was supplied, resulting in a deficit of 1.8 per cent, according to the data. In October, there was a peak power deficit of 4.3 per cent, as per revised figures. The power requirement during the month was 131,286 MW against supply of 125,629 MW.

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Analysis of Trading activities by Licensed Traders for November 2013...

 

CERC has released the analysis of power trading activities performed by the licensed traders for the month of November 2013.

 

The abstract of the report is presented below:

 

 

Summary

• The reported short-term contract volume for November 2013 (analysis of four weeks) is 1585 MUs whereas the same was 2262 MUs for the month of October 2013 (analysis of five weeks). This is equivalent to about 12% decrease in average weekly volume transacted during October.
• 91% of total volume has been contracted at price of more than `4/kWh during November as compared to 85% of total volume contracted during October.
• Total number of contracts (including swap & banking) executed during November is 127 by 6 traders whereas in October the number of contracts executed was 273 by 9 traders.

Comparison of Short Term OTC contracts prices with Power Exchange prices (on Contracted Date)

The maximum number of contracts are executed in the fourth week of the period and the overall price of OTC contracts executed was in the range of Rs. 2.23/kWh - Rs. 6.97/kWh whereas the prices on the Exchanges varied between Rs. 1.61/kWh - Rs. 3.49/kWh. (Pl refer the embedded report)

Forward Curve of Power Prices
A forward curve reflects present day’s expectation of spot prices for a future period. Accordingly forward curves have been drawn based on prices of contracts executed for supply of power for future period. Forward curve have been drawn for December 2013 – May 2014 based on 120 contracts.

The Forward Curve for November 2013 is based on 120 reported contracts for the period up to 1st December 2013 and the tenure of the curve is for the period 8th December 2013 to 31st May 2014(period of power delivery). The forward prices for December 2013 & January 2014 are based on 30 & 25 contracts respectively whereas the forward prices for April & May 2014 are based on only 5-7 contracts. Thus, the liquidity is high in terms of number of contracts in the nearer months in comparison to farther months and therefore the price indicators are better for nearer months. (Pl refer the embedded report)

Post-facto Comparison of Prices in OTC Contracts and in Power Exchanges (on Power Delivery Dates)
The post facto graph shows the average OTC price vis-à-vis power exchanges prices for the last month’s power deliveries. Hence this compares the spot Power Exchange prices with OTC deliveries (OTC contracts may have been executed earlier but delivered on the same days as on the exchange spot deliveries). The methodology of calculating the data points of OTC prices is same as in the forward curve. (Pl refer the embedded report)

List of traders who have undertaken contracts in October 2013

Trader	4th Nov - 10th Nov	11th Nov - 17th Nov	18th Nov - 24th Nov	25th Nov - 1st Dec	Grand Total
PTC India Ltd	Y(26)	Y(20)	Y(21)	Y(29)	Y(96)
NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited	NIL	NIL	Y(4)	Y(16)	Y(20)
Tata Power Trading Co. Ltd	NIL	NR	Y(4)	NIL	Y(4)
JSW Power Trading Co. Ltd	NIL	NIL	Y(3)	NR	Y(3)
Mittal Processors Pvt. Ltd	NR	NR	NR	Y(3)	Y(3)
Instinct Infra & Power Ltd	NR	NIL	NIL	Y(1)	Y(1)
Grand Total	Y(26)	Y(20)	Y(32)	Y(49)	Y(127)

Note 1: Y ( ): Contracts had been undertaken (Number of Contracts), NIL: No Contracts was made during the week, NR: Not Reported
*Note 2: This table shows list of traders who have reported & undertaken at least one contract during the reported period. There could be some traders who have reported but did not undertake any contracts.

Complete report is embedded below.

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Global solar PV O&M markets to triple by 2017: Report

 

GTM Research Inc. (Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.) has released a new report which predicts that the market for operations and maintenance (O&M) services for solar photovoltaic (PV) plants will triple in size by 2017.

“Megawatt Scale PV O&M Market” finds very large price and service level variations in the current market, with up to double the cost in high-priced markets such as Italy versus low-cost markets such as the United States.

The report also finds that higher prices are often due to local market conditions and not service levels.

“In countries where new construction activity remains high or growing, little consideration is given to O&M as a standalone business,” said report author Cedric Brehaut, principal at SoliChamba Consulting. “The market tends to treat it as an extension of project development, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), or independent power producer (IPP) activities.”

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Report: Large Scale Grid Integration of Renewable Energy Sources - Way Forward

 

A detailed report on the recommended methodology for the effective integration of Renewable Energy Projects with the Grid has been published by Central Electricity Authority.

 

Summary of the same is depicted below.

 

Renewable generation from wind and solar has increased substantially during past few years and forms a significance proportion of the total generation in the grid. This renewable generation is concentrated in a few states, to the extent that it cannot be called marginal generation and serious thought needs to be given to balance the variability of such generation. There is an ambitious programme for increase of such Renewable Generation and therefore, it is imperative to work out a way forward for facilitating large scale integration of such variable Renewable Energy Sources (RES), keeping in view the security of the grid.

Moreover, as we move towards a tighter frequency band, it becomes even more challenging to balance this variable RES.
Generation from RE Sources depends on nature, i.e. wind velocity and sunshine. The variability of RES power can be addressed through improved forecasting techniques, which are still evolving. When the percentage of RES becomes significant, special attention needs to be paid to accurately forecast their output.

India is a country of continental size and this is helpful in balancing the variable output of renewable energy sources located in few states by integrating them into all India grid. The inter state and inter regional transmission infrastructure is already being developed and it is expected that all the five electrical regions of India would be synchronously connected in 2014. However, new transmission corridors would be required for evacuating green energy from states such as Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan and J & K (Ladakh). It has now been recognised by the transmission planners that in view of the short gestation period of RE plants, the transmission has to lead generation and would require upfront investment. Such transmission corridors required in the next five year time span have already been firmed up through the established process of coordinated transmission planning and their implementation is being taken up progressively.

The Report has been prepared by CEA on the basis of detailed discussions and inputs furnished by Gujarat, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.

The summary of way forward as recommended in the report is presented below:

• In order to deal with variability of renewable generation forecasts are crucial for resource adequacy during operation and grid security.
• Each state should assess its balancing capacity and enter into RE purchase obligation accordingly. Based on the status of measures available with the state, they should assess their present capacity to balance the combined variability of load & RE generation
• The respective buyer State of RE power shall be responsible for maintaining its load-generation balance taking into account the revised forecasts of their RE portfolios. In order to save time in revision of schedules, the SLDCs/RLDC/NLDC, as the case may be, would suo-motu revise the RE schedule of a state based on inputs from the host REMC/SLDC. In this manner the responsibility of RE balancing would be shared by all the RE purchasing states.
• The present power exchange provides only one opportunity for buying and selling on day ahead basis. Real time markets (i.e the opportunity to buy and sell power about two hours ahead) should be started to provide a platform for selling surplus power or buying power when in deficit. 10 -15 % merchant capacity in generating plants as per the National Electricity Policy may be useful for providing liquidity in the electricity market.
• Technical and regulatory measures to enhance the flexibility of conventional generation to increase the balancing capacity of the grid.
• Establishment of Renewable Energy Management centers (REMC) equipped with advanced forecasting tools, smart dispatching solutions, real time monitoring of RE generation, closely coordinating with SLDC/RLDC should be provided.
• Wind farms may also be set up through competitive bidding in order to reduce tariff.
• It is necessary that healthiness of grid protection schemes through regular monitoring and updating is ensured.
• International cooperation for developing REMCs in the RE rich states, balancing capabilities using indigenous sources of conventional power, optimum development of enabling transmission infrastructure and capacity building of grid operators has become necessary at this stage of RE development.

 

Complete report is embedded below:

 

The same can be downloaded from this link.

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Analysis of Trading activities by Licensed Traders for October 2013...

 

 

CERC has released the analysis of power trading activities performed by the licensed traders for the month of October 2013.

The abstract of the report is presented below:

 

 

 

Summary

• The reported short-term contract volume for October 2013 (analysis of five weeks) is 2262 MUs whereas the same was 1529 MUs for the month of for September 2013 (analysis of four weeks). This is equivalent to about 18% increase in average weekly volume transacted during September.
• 85% of total volume has been contracted at price of more than Rs. 4/ kWh during October as compared to 36% of total volume contracted during September.
• Total number of contracts (including swap & banking) executed during October is 273 by 9 traders whereas in September the number of contracts executed was 180 by 9 traders.

 

Comparison of Short Term OTC contracts prices with Power Exchange prices (on Contracted Date)

The contracts executed are almost evenly distributed with the maximum number of contracts executed in the first week of the period (refer to annexure I for contracts executed week-wise) and the overall price of OTC contracts executed was in the range of Rs. 2.02/kWh - Rs. 6.66/kWh whereas the prices on the Exchanges varied between Rs. 1.89/kWh - Rs. 3.47/kWh

Forward Curve of Power Prices

A forward curve reflects present day’s expectation of spot prices for a future period. Accordingly forward curves have been drawn based on prices of contracts executed for supply of power for future period. Forward curve have been drawn for November 2013 – May 2014 based on 247 contracts and for comparison forward curve has been drawn for October 2013 – May 2014 based on 168 contracts. (Pl refer the embedded report)

Post-facto Comparison of Prices in OTC Contracts and in Power Exchanges (on Power Delivery Dates)

The post facto graph shows the average OTC price vis-à-vis power exchanges prices for the last month’s power deliveries. Hence this compares the spot Power Exchange prices with OTC deliveries (OTC contracts may have been executed earlier but delivered on the same days as on the exchange spot deliveries). The methodology of calculating the data points of OTC prices is same as in the forward curve. (Pl refer the embedded report)

List of traders who have undertaken contracts in October 2013

Trader	30th Sep - 6th Oct	7th Oct - 13th Oct	14th Oct - 20th Oct	21st Oct - 27th Oct	28th Oct - 3rd Nov	Grand Total
PTC India Ltd.	Y(49)	Y(44)	Y(38)	Y(36)	Y(41)	Y(208)
NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd.	Y(11)	Y(4)	Y(7)	Y(8)	Y(6)	Y(36)
Tata Power Trading Co. Ltd.	Y(4)	NIL	Y(2)	Y(9)	Y(2)	Y(17)
JSW Power Trading Company Ltd.	NIL	Y(2)	NIL	Y(1)	Y(1)	Y(4)
Instinct Infra & Power Ltd.	Y(2)	Y(1)	NIL	NIL	NR	Y(3)
Mittal Processors (P) Ltd	Y(2)	NIL	NR	NR	NR	Y(2)
National Energy Trading & Services Ltd.	NIL	NIL	NIL	NIL	Y(1)	Y(1)
Reliance Energy Trading (P) Ltd.	NIL	NIL	NIL	Y(1)	NIL	Y(1)
Shree Cement Ltd	NIL	NIL	NIL	Y(1)	NR	Y(1)
Grand Total	Y(68)	Y(51)	Y(47)	Y(56)	Y(51)	Y(273)

Note 1: Y ( ): Contracts had been undertaken (Number of Contracts), NIL: No Contracts was made during the week, NR: Not Reported
*Note 2: This table shows list of traders who have reported & undertaken at least one contract during the reported period. There could be some traders who have reported but did not undertake any contracts.

Complete report is embedded below.

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