Power Generation- January 2020 in minutes

Installed Capacity as on Dec 31, 2019- 367.28 GW

Important Update of the Month:

Union Minster R.K. Singh stated that Hydropower projects worth Rs. 20,200 crore has been sanctioned for Arunachal Pradesh which should be developed to solve power crisis of the country. 

He further asked the GoAP and the PSUs to work in tandem to ensure that all projects in various stages are completed on time. 

SJVN Limited has achieved the target of generating 9100 Million Units of electricity for the FY 2019-20 on 29.01.2020. The excellent Operation & Maintenance of two hydro projects viz. 1500 MW Nathpa Jhakri Hydro Power Station and 412 MW Rampur Hydro Power Station and favorable weather conditions helped in achieving these targets when 62 days are still left in the current Financial Year.

Total portfolio of SJVN is 7579.2 MW, out of which 2015.2 MW is under operation, 2880 MW is under construction, 572 MW is under pre-construction & investment approval and 2112 MW is under survey & investigation stage.

As per officials, authorities are assessing how seriously to punish the operators of coal-fired plants around New Delhi that missed a year-end deadline to fit equipment to curb harmful emissions.

Prashant Gargava, Member secretary at the CPCB, stated that action has to be based on the level of progress that they have made individually, and we are working on that. 

Only one out of the 11 plants around New Delhi has installed equipment to cut emissions of sulphur oxides. Four of the remaining 10 plants have awarded bids for retrofitting the technology while the remaining six plants have not awarded bids yet.

As per CEA, coal stock at power plants has touched 19 days. This is just two-days short of the 21 days stock level stipulated by CEA which Coal India hopes to touch by end of this month.

At the closure of December 2019 total coal stock at power plants and mine mouth was 57 million tonnes. Stocks at pit heads stood at 25.3 million tonnes, ahead by 2.1 million tonnes than a year-ago period. Stocks at power plants stood at 31.63 million tonnes, sufficient for 18 days’ consumption, more than twice last year’s stock.

As per the analysis, share of thermal power generation capacity in India fell to 62.24% from 63.2% last year. As of December 2019, total installed power capacity is about 371 GW. 

Wood Mackenzie (WoodMac) is of the view that Indian coal production will improve in 2020.

In addition to a decline in coal-based power generation in H2 2019, cement and steel production were also down 1.8% and 0.3%, respectively. This resulted in a decline in coal demand. With power generation and cement and steel production slowing, stocks of domestic coals have started to increase in India. 

As per analysis, India witnessed a sharp rise in new coal-based power generation capacity last year, with thermal power plants accounting for 44% of the total new power generation capacity added in the country. The share is a huge increase from just 21% in 2017 and 25% in 2018.

India’s power generation sector witnessed 7.8 GW of net coal-fired generation capacity coming online in 2019. The net generation capacity addition in overall the fossil fuel-fired sector was only marginally lower at 7.7 GW due to some retirements in diesel-powered generation.

It is interesting to note that outside the renewable energy sector India managed to add new capacity based only on coal. 

Drop in power demand that has taken a toll on electricity generation has led to a 17 per cent drop in India’s thermal coal imports in the first nine months of the current financial year.

As per data, coal shipments at the country’s 12 major ports dropped to 65,971 million tonne during the April-December 2019 period from 79,558 million tonne in the corresponding period of 2018. 

Experts attribute the overall decline in both coal imports and domestic production to the decline in thermal power generation witnessed in the current financial year given the subdued electricity demand.

The drop in local output is attributed to land and clearance related challenges, mainly in Odisha and Chhattisgarh, coupled with extreme rainfall.

In order to make India a global player in nuclear power sector, the Central government is contemplating to allow FDI in the nuclear power area.

The decision, likely to be considered by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), would be a paradigm shift in India's nuclear power policy, and subsequently open the gates for multinational companies to invest in the country's nuclear energy projects.

As per sources, several foreign companies, including Westinghouse Electric Company (WEC) and GE-Hitachi of the US, Electricite de France (EDF) of France and Rosatom of Russia have expressed keen interest in participating in India's nuclear power projects.

India's thermal power generation capacity addition programme, which was exceeding the actual targets set by the government until a few years ago, has stagnated and steeply fell in the recent years due to various issues such as land acquisition, focus on renewables and funding problems of the developers, especially in the private sector.

As per CEA report, if the target is to add 10296.15 MW of thermal power in 2019-20, the actual addition until the end of September 2019 was only 3345 MW. Of this, 1980 MW out of a target of 6040 MW is in the Central sector, 1320 MW out of a target of 4256.15 MW by various states and just 45 MW in the private sector were added during the period. In 2017-18, the target was to add 11,366.15 MW capacity, but the actual addition was only 8,710 MW. In 2018-19, the target was reduced to 7266.15 MW, but the addition was only 5781.75 MW.

As per sources, power ministry has proposed a new deadline for coal-fired power plants around New Delhi to install equipment to reduce emissions. 

The ministry is proposing to give deadlines starting July 2020 and ending December 2021 to install the equipment.

The deceleration in electricity generation abated in December. Total electricity generation declined 2.1% last month, notably lower than the 6.1% fall in November and 12.9% slump in October. The improvement reflects the incremental increase in economic activity. 

The recovery is led by the western region, home to a large industrial base and generation capacity. Total generation in the western region grew 3.5%, compared with a 5% decline in November and 14% drop in October.

Association of Power Producers (APP) in a letter to Union Coal Minister has claimed that the auction methodology is not in line with the recommendations of the high-level empowered committee (HLEC) which was constituted to address issues of stressed thermal power projects.

Power producers claim that there are “high risk” factors associated with the two-step auction process as only plants which manage to secure PPAs within two years after the auction will receive coal. There is a minimal possibility of any private power plant getting access to the coal awarded in this auction since there are no visibility of PPAs in the near horizon. The last major bid for long term PPA was held in 2016 by Telangana. Power producers also said that the auction involves high risk of forfeiture of bid security, which is about Rs 1 crore per lakh tonne. 

The power ministry has finalised two schemes to procure 4,000 MW from gas-based power plants to rescue stranded units put up at a cost of about Rs 1,00,000 crore.

The schemes include procuring 2,000 MW from gas-based plants through auction and bundling it with an equal capacity of solar power. Another 2,000 MW will be procured through online reverse auction.

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