ASHOK B SHARMA
NEW DELHI: The government is planning to introduce eco-friendly technologies for power generation in the country.
The Union minister of power, Sushil Kumar Shinde, speaking at the Economic Editors’ Conference-2010 in New Delhi on Tuesday said : “Tourist destinations like Goa should be environmentally protected. In Goa we will use gas feedstock for power generation and we will have underground electrical wiring.”
He said that coal may continue to remain as the major feedstock for power generation and
hence with a view to generate power in an eco-friendly manner, innovative technologies needed to be discovered. “Installation of large size supercritical units is being encouraged with a view to have faster capacity addition and also to enhance efficiency, reduce coal consumption and green house (GHG) gas emission During the ongoing 11th Plan period it is proposed that few units of 660 MW based on supercritical technology would be commissioned.
However, during the the 12th Plan period, it is estimated that around 50% of the coal-based thermal capacity addition would be through supercritical units. Further, it has already been decided that 13th Plan coal based thermal capacity addition will be through supercritical units only,” the minister said. He assured that no power project would be scrapped as the country needs more power generation.
Shinde said that there was a need to look for other options preferably those less capital intensive ones for new capacity addition and which would be implemented in a comparatively shorter timeframe. Optimum utilization of existing installed capacity to maximize generation through renovation and modernization of existing power plan can be considered to be most cost effective. He said that there was a need for ensuring free flow of electricity from one part of the country to another by upgrading inter-state and inter-regional transmission links.
At present, aggregate inter-regional transmission capacity in the country is more than 20750 and is planned to increase to 32650 MW by the end of the 11th Plan period. In the 12th Plan period the southern region will be integrated with the rest of the country and the whole country would be operating at one common frequency backed up by a strong national grid.
The central government was implementing restructured APDRP scheme to check aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) loss of power, he said and added that the aim of the scheme to reduce the loss to the level of 15% in project areas.