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International Conference On SHP Kandy Srilanka All Policy, Investor & Operational Aspects-C - C27
International Conference On SHP Kandy Srilanka All Policy, Investor & Operational Aspects-C - C27
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ABSTRACT
For the 8-9% growth rate that India aspires for, its energy needs are increasing correspondingly. The electricity demand in the country is expected to grow at 10% per annum. With the Electricity Act (2003), Electricity Policy (2005) and Tariff Policy (2006) in possession, the country has created a conducive atmosphere for investments in the power sector. It has been realized that there is a need to tap all possible sources of energy to meet this challenge and Small Hydro Power (SHP) is considered as a reliable option for grid interactive as well as decentralized power generation. The estimated potential of small hydro (upto 25 MW station capacity) in India is of about 15,000 MW of which about 2005 MW has been exploited. The aim is that out of the total grid interactive power generation capacity that is being installed, 2% should come from small hydro. A target of adding about 1400 MW during 20072012. The Indian SHP development programme received a new tempo after the liberalization of economy and invitation to private sector for investment in the power sector. Today the SHP programme is essentially private investment driven. Electricity generation from small hydro is becoming increasingly competitive with preferential tariffs and some other concessions. The challenge is to improve reliability, quality and reduce costs. The focus of the SHP programme is to lower the cost of equipment, increase its reliability and set up projects in areas which give the maximum advantage in terms of capacity utilisation.
1 INTRODUCTION
Hydropower represents use of water resources towards inflation free energy due to absence of fuel cost with mature technology characterized by highest prime moving efficiency and spectacular operational flexibility. Out of the total power generation installed capacity in India of 1,34,942 MW (July,2007), hydro power contributes about 25% i.e. 33,711 MW. A capacity addition of 78,577 MW is envisaged from different conventional sources during 2007-2012 (the 11th Plan), which includes 16,553 MW from large hydro projects. In addition to this, a capacity addition of 1400 MW is expected from small hydro upto 25 MW station capacity. India has a history of about 110 years of hydropower. The first small hydro project of 130 KW commissioned in the hills of Darjeeling in 1897 mark the development of hydropower in India. The Sivasamudram project of 4500 KW was the next to come up in Mysore District of Karnataka in 1902, for supply of power to the Kolar gold mines. Following this, there was number of small hydro projects set up in various hilly areas of the country. Till independence (1947) , the country had an installed capacity of 1362 MW, which included 508 MW hydropower projects, mainly small and medium size projects. A planned development of hydropower projects in India started only in the post independent era. The focus was laid on large-scale power generation through big hydro, thermal and nuclear route. First 50 years after independence saw a capacity addition of 85,019 MW including 21,644 MW of hydropower stations, most of them were being large hydro. Since the development was mainly in the Central sector and the State Electricity Boards (SEBs) were more or less tuned to the central planning system, relatively less importance was given to small projects. In late 80s, it was realized that the development of Small Hydro Power (SHP) potential has remain largely untapped as the focus was on large-scale power generation. In order to provide focused attention to small size projects, the subject of small hydro was brought under the perview of renewable energy.
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International Conference on Small Hydropower - Hydro Sri Lanka, 22-24 October 2007
The decade of 90s saw a firm footing for the development of small hydro in India. A comprehensive programme for exploitation of its potential was built. Demonstration projects were supported throughout the country with new technical and engineering concepts to harness small, medium and high heads for SHP projects in hills as well as canals. R&D projects and a dedicated center namely Alternate Hydro Energy Centre (AHEC) at University of Roorkee (now IIT, Roorkee), to provide technical support to the small hydro sector. were supported. Database of potential SHP sites on small rivers and canals was concurrently developed. A preinvestment study was carried out under the auspices of the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) jointly supported by UNDP and World Bank with an objective to prepare an investment program to develop irrigation/ canal based hydro schemes. Alongside, manufacturing base for SHP equipment was strengthened. Against the background of depleting forest resources of Himalayas, the UNDP-GEF Indian Hilly Hydro Project was initiated in the year 1994 as the first Indian project from GEF portfolio in order to develop a national strategy and master plan for optimum utilization of small hydro resources of Himalayan and sub Himalayan region with an outlay of US $ 15 million equally shared between Government of India and GEF. The project also envisaged implementation of 20 demonstration SHP projects, design and development of watermills for electricity generation and to develop management & ownership models through community participation. A zonal plan for all the 13 states was evolved by identifying potential sites in the states followed by a master plan for SHP development in the Himalayan region. First three private sector SHP projects, including one by an NGO, in hilly areas were set up as part of this project with IREDA financing. The project succeeded in developing concept of community participation for SHP and watermills apart from sensitizing the states, manufacturers, consultants, NGOs etc. All these efforts lead to a firm programme of Small hydro in India.
Table 1: Classification of small hydro in India While Ministry of Power in Government of India deals with large hydro projects, the responsibility of small hydro development rests with Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
International Conference on Small Hydropower - Hydro Sri Lanka, 22-24 October 2007
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
Andhra Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Assam Bihar Chhatisgarh Goa Gujarat Haryana Himachal Pradesh Jammu & Kashmir Jharkhand Karnataka Kerala Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Orissa Punjab Rajasthan Sikkim Tamil Nadu Tripura Uttar Pradesh Uttaranchal West Bengal A&N Island TOTAL
Table 2: State wise identified sites and installed projects with capacity in MW. A comprehensive resource assessment for all the renewable energy sources including small hydro and mapping of potential sites/locations on a GIS platform is receiving utmost attention. The aim is to map renewable energy potential in the country and bring it on a GIS platform with information necessary to take investment decisions
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International Conference on Small Hydropower - Hydro Sri Lanka, 22-24 October 2007
to set up projects. Models have been developed that takes into account the regional flow duration curves, geological and seismological data, vegetation cover etc. for identification of potential sites. The GIS technologies to extract information on natural drops available in the river system. The water availability at these sites is then determined using a distributed rainfall-runoff model i.e. SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model. The model uses terrain features, land use and soil data along with the rainfall and other meteorological parameters such as temperature, relative humidity and solar radiation data to generate the flow time series. The model has been successfully tested on Bias basin in Himachal Pradesh and is proposed to be extended to other basins also.
International Conference on Small Hydropower - Hydro Sri Lanka, 22-24 October 2007
Small hydropower projects are now governed by these policies and the tariff is decided by the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs). The state government policies have been further refined to make them entrepreneur friendly. 19 States in India, namely, Andhra Pradehsh, Assam, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have announced policies for setting up commercial SHP projects through private sector participation. The facilities available in the States include wheeling of power produced, banking, buy-back of power, facility for third party sale, etc. The procedure for allotment of sites have been streamlined and made transparent. While some states continued with allotment of already identified sites, some others even allowed identification of potential sites by the entrepreneurs themselves. Number of financial institutions and Banks are financing the projects.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is giving financial subsidy, both in public and private sector to set up SHP projects. In order to improve quality and reliability of projects, it has been made mandatory to get the project tested for its performance by an independent agency and achieving 80% of the envisaged energy generation before the subsidy is released. In order to ensure project quality/performance, the ministry has been insisting to adhere to IEC/International standards for equipment and civil works. The subsidy available from the Ministry is linked to use of equipment manufactured to IEC or other prescribed international standards. The equipment in the project is required to confirm to the following IEC standards. Equipment Standard Turbines and generator (rotating electrical IEC 60034 1: 1983 machines) IEC 61366-1: 1998 IEC 61116-1992 IS: 4722-2001 IS 12800 (part 3) 1991 Field Acceptance Test for Hydraulic IEC 60041: 1991 performance of turbine Governing system for hydraulic turbines IEC 60308 Transformers IS 3156 1992 IS 2705 1992 IS 2026 - 1983 Inlet valves for hydro pow er stations & IS 7326 - 1902 systems Recently the Ministry has given an assignment to AHEC, IIT Roorkee to revisit the existing standards and come out with standards/manuals/guidelines for improving reliability and quality of small hydro power projects in the country. 4.2 Decentralized SHP projects The rural energy scenario in India is characterized by inadequate, poor and unreliable supply of energy services. Realizing the fact that mini hydropower projects can provide a solution for the energy problem in rural, remote and hilly areas where extension of grid system is comparatively uneconomical, promoting mini hydro projects is one of the objectives of the small hydro Power programme in India. A number of mini/micro hydro projects have been set up in remote and isolated areas, mainly in Himalayan region. While these projects are developed by various state agencies responsible for renewable energy, the projects are normally maintained with local community participation. A number of tea garden owners have also set up such micro hydro projects to meet their captive requirement of power. Water wheels, have traditionally been used in the Himalayan regions for rice hulling, milling of grain and other mechanical applications. These water mills are normally of very old design and work at very low efficiencies. It has been estimated that there are more than 1.5 lakh potential water mill sites in the Himalayan regions of India. With the R&D efforts, new and improved designs of water mills have been developed for mechanical as well as electricity generation of 3 kW. These designs were tested at AHEC, IIT Roorkee and have been -5
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International Conference on Small Hydropower - Hydro Sri Lanka, 22-24 October 2007
replicated by 6-7 small scale manufacturers. Local organizations such as the Water Mill Associations, cooperative societies, registered NGOs, local bodies, and State Nodal Agencies are being encouraged to install watermills in their areas. A number of NGOs are now propagating water mills for electricity generation to meet small scale electrical requirements of villages. The state of Uttaranchal has taken a lead in setting up electricity generation watermills and over 500 such watermills were installed in remote and isolated areas of the state. A mass movement with community participation to install electricity generating watermills is now underway in Uttaranchal. 4.3 Manufacturing Status India has a wide base of manufacturers of equipment for small hydro power projects. State-of-the-art equipment is available indigenously. 15 manufacturers fabricate almost the entire range and type of SHP equipment. Manufacturers capacity is estimated at about 250 MW per year. In addition, there are about 5 manufactures that are producing micro hydel and watermill equipment. 4.4 Technical and consultation Services Consultancy services in the field of small hydro projects are available from a number of Government / private consultancy organizations. The Ministry is strengthening technical institutions to provide such services. AHEC, IIT Roorkee is providing full range of technical services in the field of small hydro including survey and investigation, DPR preparation, project design etc. On site testing facility has been created at AHEC to test SHP stations for their performance. A Real Time simulator has been set up at AHEC which is providing hands on experience to operators of SHP stations. It is the first SHP simulator in the country. The simulator is capable of replicate all conditions of a hydro power station. AHEC is offering regular training programmes for operators and engineers of SHP stations. With the constant efforts of the government and techno-economic viability with some preferential treatment, small hydro has emerged as a viable business option over these years. Over 130 private sector small hydro power projects are now operational in the country on canals as well as small rivers. It is expected that the growth of small hydro would be @ 250-300 MW per year in the coming years. Simultaneously, micro hydro projects have also emerged as a reliable source of electricity generation for remote and isolated areas. Efforts are being made to strengthen hydrological data base and identify new potential sites on one side and evacuation facilities on the other for effectively harnessing small hydro potential in the country. Trained manpower and good equipment manufacturing base exists to cater growing needs of the sector. Appropriate selection of site and sizing of projects to give higher plant load factors are considered important for further improve economic viability of commercial SHP projects.