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AP focus on non-conventional sources for power generation

J. Nanda Gopal

HYDERABAD, May 27

THE Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu's, recent statement that the State would be surplus in power next year had raised many an eyebrow, especially as it had come in the wake of undeclared power cuts and inadequate power supply to farmers and indu strialists.

Whatever might be the present power supply situation in the State, the Chief Minister's optimism was not without foundation. It stems from the reliable work being turned out by the Union Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources in boosting power gener ation through the tapping of wind, small hydro, bio-mass, solar energy and industrial and municipal solid waste.

The aggressive way the non-conventional sources are exploited for power generation now accounts for the addition of a few hundred megawatts in the State every year and this buttresses the optimism of Mr. Chandrababu Naidu that inadequate power supply to consumers would soon be a thing of the past.

Mr N.B. Raju, Head of the regional office of the Ministry here, explained the progress of various projects and what the future holds for the State.

He said the Ministry's work centred on rural and urban fronts. For meeting the urban energy needs, grid quality power had to be generated from wind. As the cost of generating one megawatt was Rs. 3.5 crores against the potential of more than 2000 MW thro ugh wind power, the job was entrusted to private parties.

There must be a wind speed of at least 20 kms. an hour to generate power. Anantapur district of the State was found ideal for this and already 100 MW of power was being generated there. Every year about 30 MW of wind energy was being added. Wheeling of p ower was allowed to the private parties but they had to sell it to AP Power Transmission Corporation at the rate of Rs. 2-20 a unit, with a 5 per cent hike every year towards escalation charges.

It now worked out to a little more than Rs. 3 a unit. Mr. Raju said there was potential to generate more than 30,000 MW of power from wind in the country.

AP was leading in power generation from bio-mass such as bagasse, rice husk and agricultural waste. Fifty plants of 6 MW range each had been sanctioned by the Ministry and of them 5 had been commissioned and 25 had been sanctioned loans. All the plants w ould be fully operational in about two years accounting for a total of 300 MW. of additional power.

Sugar factories and paper mills which produced bagasse were allowed cogeneration and 100 MW was being produced through this source. In addition, generation of 50 MW additionally was at various stages of progress. The factories were using whatever power t hey needed and were selling the surplus to the grid.

In fact cogeneration had become so lucrative that according to highly placed factory sources, power was now the main source of income and sugar production a subsidiary avocation.

Small hydro was another promising area for power production. Natural streams, canal drops and hill streams were the principal sources of power generation and already 40 MW capacity had been commissioned. Progress on this front was so encouraging that 200 MW of additional power was set to be produced in a couple of years. Soft loans were being extended to the power producers through the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA).

Grid quality power generation from municipal solid waste was now a reality and land had been allotted to private parties in all the municipal corporations in the State to take up the venture. As much as 50 MW of power was expected to be available from th is source in two years.

He said that village electrification was the new thrust area of the Ministry in the 10th Plan through the use of solar and bio-mass energy. As many as 80,000 villages were yet to be electrified and of them 18,000 were unapproachable due to lack of road i nfrastructure. As a consequence, the non-conventional means of energising them had to be explored. Already 1000 of them had been electrified through this route.

As conversion of solar energy into electricity on commercial lines was prohibitively costly, the only alternative in the present circumstances was to use it for lighting small households and also in the shape of gadgets such as lanterns and stoves.

Solar power is also used for heating and pumping water by big hotels and hospitals and for running petrol bunks and even ATMs (Automatic Teller Machines) of banks. This eases the pressure on electricity produced from coal.