Universal Access and Economics of India's Future Power Mix: Lessons and Cautions

"World (is) desirous of Narendra Modi’s bold leadership for clean energy"

These were the words of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015 [1]. With his recently concluded trip to Western Europe and the White House, PM Modi has indeed taken his stewardship of renewable energy (and to an extent, the climate change mitigation agenda post Paris) at a truly global level. And many would say rightfully so. As the old saying goes – “charity begins at home”, the ambitious leader has begun much of the “charities” at his home country where he enjoys a healthy majority. There is a cue to be taken from this, particularly with respect to energy poverty and capacity addition of renewable in a country’s energy mix. PM Modi has articulated his vision for India’s power scenario along the three dimensions of – (A) achieving universal access to 24x7 power for all by 2019 [2], (B) capacity addition of 175 GW of renewable energy (100 GW solar, 60 GW wind, and rest is small hydro and biomass) by 2022 [3] and (C) an efficient fleet of conventional fossil fuel (coal, LNG) and nuclear [4]. The last two, B and C, undoubtedly topped his domestic agenda at the White House recently and therefore, hold much global significance.

Interestingly, all three dimensions of PM Modi’s vision are joined in an integrated triangle i.e. India’s centralized power grid, which is also looking towards modernization for some years now. At the time of this post, USAID and POSOCO have released their study report on “Pathways to Integrate 175 Gigawatts of Renewable Energy into India’s Electric Grid” (detail available here). While this technical study is a welcome step by the Governments of India and US, there are a few cautionary notes that need some heeding as far as PM Modi’s visions for the power sector and economics of India’s integrated central grid are concerned. No doubt, the targets and goals of capacity addition and energy access are steps in the right direction but the path may throw upheavals if not taken with rational footing. Personally, based on my experience of working in the sector for last few years, I see three aspects that need a lot of deliberation among experts in the industry.  

Choice of Photo-voltaic (PV) Technology

The current scenario in the power industry is extremely buoyant with respect to solar PV technology. In fact recent bid for a solar park has seen a tariff of Rs2.44 per kWh (US 4 cents) [5] which is astronomically low even by the standard of technical advancement of thin film and crystalline Silicon has set globally. We need to remind ourselves that low cost poly-crystalline technology has inherently lower efficiency of conversion and hence PV power plants based on it will see low capacity factor. Therefore, greater deliberation is warranted before quality is compromised viz a viz cheaper technology.

There is also a temperature degradation concern with PV technology. The performance of solar PV module de-rates significantly with rise in temperature, so putting them in high temperate climates across India may not yield the desired performance. These two facts – cost efficiency and temperature – need to be considered with caution while pushing so many PV generation system into the 100 GW solar targets.

Load following generation system in the power mix

Majority of renewable energy plants will have intermittent hours of operation (when sun shines or wind blows). This means the central grid has to rely on peaking plants or electrical storage systems in order to serve power demand at hours outside of those when renewable is available . Costs of these peaking plants (gas operated) or storage systems could add to the Government estimates for renewable energy budget (please see my earlier article of Government of India’s renewable energy budget during 2011-2017 in here).

In a recent project, I worked on a generation mix model for all the five regions of India’s integrated central grid. A number of scenarios were simulated to see how avoiding new coal plants, phasing out old coal plants and addition of 175 GW renewable (with the stated share of solar and wind and their potential generation profile) would balance out the projected energy and power demand across the day of each of the month in a year. The overall result is that before 2022, the central grid is likely to see instances of peak shortages during summer months and then energy surplus beyond 2022 if both renewable and the announced coal additions materialize (India will add 50 GW of new coal during 2017-2022 that are currently at various stages of construction). Peak shortage is likely to remain a nagging issue and what more important is that even with long duration grid scale energy storage these peak shortage scenarios cannot be avoided, as per the model results. This analysis points towards importance of off-grid back-up generation and complimentary decentralized distributed generation that can shave off the peak, so to say, left behind by the central grid.

So now, the question that arises next – what happens to base load nuclear and coal power plants with 175 GW renewable into the grid? With energy surplus beyond year 2022, conventional plants such as coal will be underutilized. In economic terms, these “base-load” plants will be run for load following purpose and during hours when renewable energy is not sufficient. This means PLF of coal plants, which are being put with high capital costs, will be low and as a result, they may suffer huge losses on their investments. In fact, this poses a question on the rational of putting newer capacity of coal and renewable power with such equal fervent. 

Energy Access for India’s 250 Million rural citizens who lack reliable access to power

This is a crucial aspect for achieving universal access to energy by all in the country. Currently most notable energy access initiatives include small solar home system (SHS) and solar PV powered microgrids. According to estimates by the Government of India, there are currently 10 MW of microgrids powering village communities across the country. There projects have worked wonderfully for the energy industry as test beds of new technologies and a lot of learning have been transferred (for instance, conservation, LED bulbs, controls of distributed systems) to the conventional power industry. But we have to consider this form of energy access as an enabling form rather than parallel to grid power, given Government of India’s focus on grid connectivity. The Government has already announced that central grid will integrate all villages in the country by year 2018 [2]. It is another fact that grid may not be energized in some remote rural locations but the conventional wisdom still stays and it is likely that most decentralized energy access projects will be seen peripheral and complimentary to the central power grid.

Recommendations

To mitigate the above cautions or concerns, I would like to put forward two recommendations, both to be looked at as cases for detailed studies.

•  A strategic study needs to come up that clearly envisages how load and generation mix are going to stack up in future. For instance, these many GW of renewable power which will feed these many hours with X% loss of load probability (LOLP). Then comes nuclear and coal, as in these many GW will run because of their legacy nature and domestic content (lot of coal in the country, so no import is needed – case for energy security). And, finally once both renewable and base load stacks are firmed up, one goes on to decide how much load following or peaking capacity is required, as in this much GW of gas plants will be operated (and hence this much natural gas or LNG will be imported). These are routine economic exercises (merit order) for the grid to take up during its operation, but one needs to look at them from probabilistic and futuristic perspectives.
•  A technology screening and review study of energy access projects so that more learning can be gathered and put before the conventional power industry. There is a lot of innovation, both jugaad and pure technological, happening in this space that can help the power industry to learn new modalities and perhaps relearn few basics of energy utility business.

References

[1] PTI (January 2015) “World desirous of Narendra Modi's bold leadership for clean energy: Ban Ki-moon”. DNA – Daily News and Analysis. Available in - https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-world-desirous-of-narendra-modi-s-bold-leadership-for-clean-energy-ban-ki-moon-2051746 , last accessed on 02 July 2017

[2] Malik Y. (January 2017) "Govt's 'Power for All' promise". VCCircle. Available in - https://www.cstep.in/uploads/default/files/pressroom/stuff/infracircle.in-Govts_Power_for_All_promise_Yeshika.pdf, last accessed on 02 July 2017

[3] MNRE (no date) “Tentative State-wise break-up of Renewable Power target to be achieved by the year 2022 So that cumulative achievement is 175,000 MW”. Available in https://mnre.gov.in/file-manager/UserFiles/Tentative-State-wise-break-up-of-Renewable-Power-by-2022.pdf, last accessed on 02 July 2017

 [4] IANS (April 2017) “If India meets renewable target, no more coal power needed after 2027”. The Economic Times. Available in - https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/power/if-india-meets-renewables-target-no-more-coal-power-needed-after-2027/articleshow/58431773.cms, last accessed on 02 July 2017

[5] M Ramesh (May 2017) “Solar tariff falls further to Rs. 2.44 per unit”. Business Line – The Hindu. Available in https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/solar-tariffs-fall-further-to-rs-244/article9694617.ece, last accessed on 02 July 2017 

Views expressed are personal. Comments are welcome. You can also write to me at [email protected]