In the road shows of TN Global Investors’ Meet 2019, the comfort in power availability for the state has been projected as a positive.
With an installed capacity of 29,000 MW that includes 11,000 MW of renewable energy, the state can be termed a power-full state. Significantly, 2018 summer witnessing peak demand passed without any power outage.
Tamil Nadu was among the earliest to tap the potential for power. The state is not endowed much with natural resources; the major exception is the rich availability of lignite. Right from the 1950s, the lignite reserves around Neyveli have been tapped to generate large quantum of power. Significantly, Tamil Nadu was the earliest to complete 100 per cent electrification of villages. This has helped agriculture.
TN, the nuclear power leader…
The state is the leader in tapping non-conventional energy sources. With 9000 MW of installed capacity, TN accounts for the largest share of wind power. The Madras Atomic Power Station, Kalpakkam, was among the earliest to set up capacity for atomic energy. The Kudankulam plant with a capacity of 2000 MW is the largest nuclear power plant. With the planned addition of another 2000 MW, TN would account for 31 per cent of total capacity.
In a detailed interview Vikram Kapur, Chairman & Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd (TANGEDCO), dealt with the strengths of the state in assuring power supply. The mantle involves not just of quantity but also of quality and reliability of supplies, to work on continuous augmentation of capacity as also to improve transmission, distribution and overall efficiency of operations.
A complex task for the energy manager…
The demand for power is presently 14,500 MW. This is met through the state’s own power stations at North Madras, Mettur and Tuticorin. The state also has long-term and medium-term contracts with private power producers. Kapur referred to the complexity of managing these different sources of supplies with varying power load factors. Certain plants are available for limited duration. Central power stations account for a committed capacity of around 6000 MW to the state but supply only around 3000-3500 MW. Often the state doesn’t get the expected supplies when needed. It is thus a complex task for the energy manager to operate the grid.
Tamil Nadu has 2300 MW of hydropower capacity and 560 MW of capacity run on gas. But availability from these is not steady. Thus the reliability is mostly on the state-owned utilities at the three clusters of Chennai, Mettur and Tuticorin accounting for 4320 MW. Running these plants at full capacity requires 72,000 tonnes of coal per day. Most of that coal comes from the Talcher and Mahanadhi coalfields in Odisha and some from West Bengal. Around 2 per cent of the enormous demand is met by imports.
In recent years the Centre had substantially streamlined production of coal by Coal India and imports had significantly reduced. However, in past months there have been shortfalls in supplies committed by Coal India as alsodue to transport bottlenecks. Remember, transportation involves movement by rail to Paradip or Haldia ports and by ship to Chennai and Tuticorin ports and again transfer by rail to the north Madras and Mettur power plants. Supplies get disrupted due to flooding of mines in Odisha.
Coal imports on most favourable terms
TANGEDCO has placed orders for importing 1.7 million tonnes. Of these recently it imported 1.10 lakh tonnes. Kapur mentioned efforts made to procure coal through e-tender- cum -reverse auction process. In this the company has been able to pay much lower negotiating for the lowest of the bids through auction: “this is internet-based. We don’t display even who were all bidding. This is the cheapest rate for coal paid by any utility in the country resulting in huge savings. Import of coal has a low ash content of just around 6-7 per cent against 35 per cent plus in domestic coal. Thus, the calorific value of imported coal is much higher with much less ash. We blend the imported coal with domestic to get optimum output,” said Kapur.
After a lull of two years, the state is coming with an encouraging policy for rooftop solar power. Kapur said the TANGEDCO fully supported rooftop solar and is removing capacity constraints at the distribution transformer level. He pointed to the technical issue involved in the transformer at the street corner providing power and at the same time evacuating it! He also pointed to the problem of managing energy ramp up during the day and ramping it down in the evening when the sun goes down. This demands flexibility through gas-based or hydel power stations. It is of particular concern to Tamil Nadu, which doesn’t have a large capacity of hydel and gas stations.
Kapur pointed to the expansion of capacity progressing at North Madras and new stations at Uppur and Udangudi. Over the next couple of years, new capacity will get added and help meet increase in demand of around 5 per cent per annum. Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation and NABARD have been providing the necessary funding. The UDAY scheme has also helped reduce the debt burden to the extent of around Rs 22,000 crore. The company is endeavouring to increase solar pump sets that would help reduce the subsidy burden on providing power free to agriculture. Despite an increase in costs there has been no increase in tariff over the last four years, pointed out Kapur.
IOC’s gas terminal at Ennore with the potential to supply five million tonnes of natural gas p.a. can also be a game changer. Kapur pointed to the 120 MW power station at Basin Bridge presently run on naphtha. This has been a standby source of power to run essential services for secretariat, hospitals, etc., in times of emergency. The clean energy will also be environment-friendly.
There is the promise of availability. The attention to augmenting power generation and distribution adroitly is accompanied by stepped up investments in transmission and distribution. This is especially welcome.
