Pima 15

PIINSIDER POWER

A S I A’ S L E A D I N G P O W E R R E P O R T

INDIA:

VOLUME 3, ISSUE 2

FIGHTING POWER POVERTY PLUS • India’s Ultra-Mega Power Projects • Technology Focus: Desalination • Exclusive Content from Alstom

FEATURES INSIDE: Case studies from BFI|Acciona and Wickeder |Interviews with NTPC, IWWA and Pertamina|Indian Renewables overview |Hydropower in India|Essar and Reliance project focus PI_MarApr_Cover_Rev2.indd 1

03/05/2013 12:48

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03/05/2013 12:34 09.04.13 18:58

welcome Welcome to the Spring Edition of Power Insider Asia!

27

In this issue we focus on a country fraught with power woes. The people of India are crying out for power, as over 40% of the population still have no access to modern energy services that they desperately need. This, combined with a blossoming economy, will triple India’s electricity demand by 2030, and a report by the Central Electricity Authority released in 2012 projected the need for a further 350-360 GW of total generation capacity by 2022.

Contact us: Editor: Charles Fox Assistant Editor: Rachael Gardner-Stephens Journalist: Robin Samuels Creative Director: Colin Halliday Sales Director: Jacob Gold International Sales Manager: Sam Thomas Account Manager: Daniel Rogers Sales Executive: Kayleigh Jeanes Accounts & Customer Service Manager: Katherine Stinchcombe Managing Director: Sean Stinchcombe SKS Global Limited Kingswood House South Road Kingswood Bristol UK BS15 8JF E: info@sks-global.com W: www.pimagazine-asia.com W: www.sks-global.com T: +44 (0) 1179 606452 F: +44 (0) 1179 608126 SKS Global Power Insider Asia magazine is published bi-monthly and is distributed to senior decision makers throughout Asia and the Pacific.

The publishers do not sponsor or otherwise support any substance or service advertised or mentioned in this book; nor is the publisher responsible for the accuracy of any statement in this publication.

Copyright: the entire content of this publication is protected by copyright, full details of which are available from the publisher. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electric, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

Despite major capacity additions over recent decades, especially during 2012 when a record breaking 18 GW was added to the grid, supply still struggles to keep up with the demand. And a lack of power isn’t India’s only trouble. Their national grid is inefficient and disjointed, with the power industry losing millions of dollars per year through poor performance.

Additionally, the power industry’s reliance on fossil fuels has led to severe coal shortages. Despite having a respectable coal reserve, disagreements between government departments have led to shortages, which has left India at the mercy of import prices. Barely affordable for the state utilities, these shortages have meant rolling black outs, plant shut downs, and massive delays in new projects.

All of this paints a rather bleak picture of an industry in distress, but that is not the case. India presents a remarkable opportunity for investment, as the government is crying out for power projects. These projects range from enormous multimegawatt coal plants to tiny, off-grid hydro projects, and all are essential for the establishment of a stable supply of power.

This edition will look in depth78 at India’s power deficit, and at the projects seeking to pull them out of the mire. As usual, our overviews will give you a good idea of the power market in India today, with not one but two fossil fuels overviews!

We’ll also take a look at the burgeoning renewables market, with a special focus on hydropower.

This issue of PI Magazine 56 will also see the introduction of a new regular feature.

Our ‘Technology Focus” will look at the latest in developments in the energy industry, and this issue will introduce you to state of the art products in the desalination and wastewater industry. Additionally on the water front, we have an exclusive interview with the Indian Water Works Association, concerning policies and initiatives implemented to ensure the supply of clean water in India’s largest urban hubs.

We also have interviews with NTPC and Pertamina, an extensive plant review of Essar Power’s Tori project, alongside an exciting feature from Alstom. Its another jam packed, all star issue, and as always feel free to get in touch with our editorial staff about any of our features. Enjoy!

Charles Fox Editor power insider march/april 2013 3

PI_MarApr_Eds_Letter.indd 3

03/05/2013 13:37

Proud to be Shortlisted.

Twice.

IDE shortlisted twice for Global Water Awards 2013: Carlsbad project for Desalination Deal of the Year Cape Preston plant for Industrial Water Project of the Year r WinricnaneWater Deal

Ame Year North of the

Cape Preston Iron Ore Mine

Carlsbad Project California, US

Western Australia

“This is the first time a pre-engineered modular plant has been built on this scale. It represents a revolution in the desalination plant supply chain. Cape Preston demonstrates that IDE is continuing to deliver innovation in every aspect of the desalination process, nearly 50 years after the company was founded.” Global Water Awards shortlist committee

www.ide-tech.com

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“The pioneering collaborative approach taken at Carlsbad will serve as a blueprint for the financing of other large-scale desalination projects across the southern US... It proves beyond all doubt that with the right determination, large-scale desalination infrastructure in the US can be financed – even in California.” Global Water Awards shortlist committee

IDE - 400 plants. 40 countries. 4 decades.

03/05/2013 13:43

CONTENTS News

6

27

How Do You Solve a Problem Like India? 10 Sasan Ultra-Mega Power Project

18

Onsite Hydrogen Generation

24

A Gem in Jharkhand with Essar

27

Direct Air Cooled Condenser Tubes

32

Feature Interview Dr. Arup Roy Choudhury of NTPC

34

BFI Automation and Flame Monitoring

36

Technology Focus: Desalination

40

IWWA Interview with Dr. Ulhas Naik

44

Acciona Agua Company Profile

48

India’s Hydro Industry Report

52

Wouter Van Wersch on Alstom in Asia

58

Renewing India’s Power Industry

64

Pertamina Interview

71

78

56

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03/05/2013 13:41

news desk Siemens Wins 18MW Contract for Akita Port

German manufacturer Siemens has signed to supply six turbines for the 18MW Akita Port wind project on the north-west coast of the Japanese island Honshu.

The deal with Japanese wind developer Eurus Energy Holdings Corporation includes the delivery and installation of direct-drive 3MW 101 machines with a rotor diameter of 101 metres. Installation and commissioning is scheduled for summer 2014 and the contract also includes a service agreement. Siemens Energy chief executive of Business Unit APAC Kay Weber said: “Japan is one of the most attractive emerging wind markets in the Asia-Pacific region. We are proud to contribute to the development of wind power in Japan with our innovative direct-drive technology.”

The Japanese Wind Power Association says the country plans to install 11GW of wind power by 2020 and 50GW by 2050. At the end of 2011, Japan had an installed wind capacity of 2.5GW.

company news from around the world

Suntech to Undergo Government Led Restructuring

Suntech’s bankruptcy has been big news in the solar industry in the last two months. Suntech Power defaulted on $541 million of its dollar-denominated bonds due in March, triggering cross-defaults on loans from the International Finance Corp (IFC) and Chinese lend-

ers including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China , Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China.

In what analysts have called one of China’s biggest corporate failures in recent history, Suntech Power - China’s largest solar panel maker - said its biggest subsidiary Wuxi Suntech was bankrupt in March but would undergo

government-led restructuring.

A court in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi, where Suntech is headquartered, has appointed a committee consisting of local government representatives and accounting and legal professionals to administer the restructuring.

Suntech says it is to explore strategic alternatives with lenders and potential

investors. It will also continue production, keeping workers in their jobs and avoiding potential unrest, sources say.

The Chinese government has been reluctant to let debt-ridden solar firms go bankrupt due to fears of unrest among the tens of thousands of people employed in the heavily subidised sector, which has built more panels

than it can sell. Suntech’s main factory is in Wuxi, where it employs about 10,000 workers.

Suntech Power had total debts of $2.2 billion at the end of March 2012, and has been badly hit by an estimated 66 percent fall in solar panel prices in the last two years as the euro zone debt crisis has led to countries like Germany

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PAkISTAn’S FIrST hydroPoWer IPP BeGInS oPerATIon Pakistan’s first hydroelectric Independent Power Project (IPP) – the 84-megawatt New Bong Escape hydropower project – has commenced commercial operations after obtaining certification by an independent engineer appointed by the power purchaser (CPPA/NTDC).

The hydropower project, which is located about 7.5 kilometers downstream of Mangla Dam in Azad Kashmir, will utilize River Jhelum water which is being wasted for almost five decades. The project has been developed under BuildOwn-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) basis, whereby it would be transferred to the

slashing subsidies for renewable power.

There have been a number of rumors regarding Suntech’s assets and the pace at which they are being sold off, though few stories have been corroborated.

Osaka Gas Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Ready for Distribution in April osaka Gas Co. in col-

laboration with Aisin Seiki Co., kyocera Corp., Chofu Seisakusho Co. and Toyoto Motor Corp. announced that it will start selling one of the world’s most efficient household fuel cells on April 27.

The ene-FArM Type S features a power generation efficiency of 46.5%, the best operation rate in the world for house hold use. According

government of Azad Kashmir free of cost at the end of a 25-year term.

“The project, which started on December 28, 2009, commenced commercial operations on March 23, 2013 and is a pride for Pakistan,” said Khalid Faizi, Director, Laraib Energy Limited, the project owner. The project has been established with an investment of $233 million at 75:25 debt-equity ratio.

New Bong Escape Hydropower complex has been built by EPC contractors of Sambu Construction Company of South Korea.

The energy generated by the project is being purchased by a single buyer, Pakistan’s National Transmission and Dispatch Company Limited (NTDC), under a long term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). Under the PPA the hydrological risk is borne by the Power Purchaser through guaranteed payment for fixed costs like debt servicing, O&M, ROE and insurance. A cost-plus-tariff mechanism is in place under the PPA and the Project has been allowed a tariff of Rs 6.8362/KWh (cents 8.5256/KWh).

to the five cooperated companies, the new model will be sold at around 2,750,000 yen (about 33,530 uS dollars) per unit in Japan from April and the Japanese makers expect to sell about 1, 000 units in the the first year. ene-FArM Type S utilizes ceramic electrolyte for the power generating cell stack which achieves a high operating temperature of 700 to

750 degrees Celsius. This high temperature heat can be efficiently used as energy to reform utility gas to hydrogen and thus the high power generation efficiency level of 46.5% is subsequently achieved — with an overall energy efficiency of 90.0%.

The SoFC system includes a hot-water supply and heating unit which uses exhausted heat with a storage tank at

a small size of 90 liters to optimally utilize the high temperature heat exhausted during power generation; as well as a high efficiency latent heat recovery type hot-water supply heating unit for the back-up boiler.

Through these measures, the system is environmentally and economically enhanced, and eliminates annual Co2 emissions of about 1.9

PoWer PoWer InSIder InSIder january/february march/april 2013 7

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news desk Japan To Cut Solar Power Tariff by 10% Japan gave final approval to a recommendation to cut the tariff for solar power by 10% for the year starting April 1 to 37.8 yen (40 cents) per kilowatt hour for 20 years. The reduction marks the first rate change since the country started an incentive program for clean energy in July. Rates for other types of clean energy such as wind and geothermal will remain unchanged, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a statement in March.

Earlier in March, a government-appointed committee made proposals for the tariffs; today’s announcement came after approval by trade

minister Toshimitsu Motegi. The tariff for wind is 23.1 yen per kilowatt hour for 20 years, according to the ministry. Geothermal is 27.3 yen per kilowatt hour for plants with capacity of 15,000 kilowatts or larger, and 42 yen per kilowatt hour for smaller plants, both for 15 years.

This cut is far less than expected and the effects on the solar industry in Japan will most likely be minimal. Even after the 10% cut, the solar tariff rate in Japan is still three times more than Germany or China.

New Technology to Prevent Sewage Outflow for Chennai Metro Water Chennai Metro Water is now adopting a new technology to prevent sewage outflow onto the street. Metro Water officials said that Municipal Administration and Water Supply Minister K. P. Munusamy had asked them to implement a `3.60-crore project so that sewage outflow is minimised in the city.

Accordingly, Metro Water would install ultrasonic level detectors in sewage collection wells to automatically pump sewage. The technology would be implemented in 218 pumping stations across the city and would bring in efficiency and better monitoring of sewage pumping stations. A pumping station is an integral part of a sewage network. Its primary role is to collect waste water and pump it from one location to another.

So far the pumping stations had been operated manually but now, with the technology, the whole process would be automatically controlled. A

company news from around the world tons while also reducing annual energy costs of about ¥76,000 compared to ordinary gas-powered hot-water supply and heating units.

Moreover, due to the low number of parts and small quantity of exhaust energy, a compact design was made possible for both the power generation unit and the

hot-water supply and heating unit — thus allowing it to be installed even at homes with limited installation space. In the future, the companies also plan to expand use of the system to apartment buildings.

This advanced SOFC system has been developed based upon the companies’ advanced technology in areas

such as the design, installation and maintenance technology of Osaka Gas for co-generation systems; the design and production technology of Kyocera for cell stacks; the design and production technology of Aisin/Toyota for generation units; and the design and production technology of Chofu for hot-water

supply and heating units using exhausted heat. The companies submitted 121 units in total to the “Demonstrative Research on Solid Oxide Fuel Cell” project undertaken by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and the New Energy Foundation which was an important part

of the road to commercialization.

Testuo Kuba, President of Kyocera Corporation told reporters that as the announced system was developed mainly to be installed in single family house, the company would further miniaturize the size of the model for families in apartment houses.

8 march/april 2013 power insider

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level detector will determine the height of waste water in the well and send a signal to a controlling system. The controlling system will start and stop large pumps, which empty the well and transfer the waste water on its journey towards a sewage treatment plant.

The whole procedure will be completed without human intervention, and will prevent sewage overflow on the streets. The project will be taken up at a cost of Rs 3.60 crore, an official said.

Metro Water is also going to introduce automated an inline water quality monitoring system to constantly monitor the quality of water supplied to residents. Officials said the `1.80-crore project would be implemented with the setting up of monitoring devices at 50 spots across the city.

Currently, water samples are collected manually every day from water distribution stations to monitor quality. Officials said the devices would be attached to pipelines and would test water quality during the hourly flow of water. The sensors in the device will transmit the data to a central control room to be set up in the head office. Turbidity, residual chlorine and PH levels will be monitored.

Larson & Toubro Wins Rs.5,689 Crore Power Plant Deal in Rajasthan

Engineering and construction company Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T) on Monday said it has secured an order worth Rs.5,689 crore from the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd for setting up a super critical thermal power project on a complete

China’s State Grid Corp to Boost UHV China’s State Grid Corp, the country’s largest power distributor, will invest over 300 billion yuan ($48 billion) in power grid construction in 2013, of which around 52 billion yuan will be allocated to the construction of ultra-high voltage (UHV) transmission lines, the company said in a statement released Thursday. Total investment in power grid construction in 2013 will remain the same as in 2012.

However, investment in UHV transmission lines is doubling. Seven UHV transmission lines are in the pipeline for construction this year.

engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis.

The order involves design, engineering, manufacturing, supply, erection and commissioning of two coal-fired thermal units of 660 MW each with super critical parameters at Chhabra in Baran district in Rajasthan.

“The contract was won following international competi-

tive bidding, involving several bidders. The project has a stringent completion schedule of 42 months for Unit 1 and 45 months for Unit 2,” the company said in a statement.

The Rajasthan order comes as L&T enters the advanced execution phase of several large super critical thermal power projects, it said.

With this contract, L&T

now has orders for supply and installation of 26 super critical steam generators and steam turbine generators of 660MW, 700MW and 800MW. “If they are getting big orders even in economic slowdown, it is a good sign for the company as well as for other allied factors such as employment , raw material suppliers and sub-contractors.

And certainly, it is a great news for shareholders,” said an analyst with a local brokerage. On 21 March, Mint reported that L&T had secured new orders valued at Rs.2,080 crore across various business segments in February and March.

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india overview

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HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE INDIA? POWER SHORTAGES, BLACKOUTS, AND GROWING DEMAND: HOW INDIA’S POWER WOES ARE RESTRICTING GROWTH By rAchAel gArdner - stephens

power insider march/april 2013 11

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india overview

I

ndia is holding itself back. Currently experiencing an 8% GDP growth, India is arguably the most prominent of the BRIC economies, and the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has set an ambitious target of 9% annual growth in GDP in the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17). Whilst the nation is making advances on the global economic stage, issues of a domestic nature are delaying their emergence as a global superpower. These issues revolve primarily around power, or the lack thereof.

Economically, it is a very simple equation. The rapid development experienced by India requires a huge amount of energy, from lighting and connecting urban hubs to the rest of the world, to the astonishing amount of power required for manufacturing and other industrial activities.

To continue on this path and fulfill its heady ambitions, India needs to produce more power. The EIA projects that electricity consumption in India will grow at an average rate of 3.3% per year through to 2035. To meet this growth, India will have to expand its current generation capacity by 234 GW. However, the nation is suffering from a severe shortage of electricity. According to the World Bank, roughly 40% of residences in India are without electricity. India suffers from daily power outages in homes and factories across the country, hurting industrial and agricultural production. Last July, the country made international headlines with a blackout that lasted nearly two days and affected more than half of the population.

This shortfall will only worsen with the predicted economic development. India’s only choice to keep pace is to rapidly increase their generation capacity.

Despite 55,000 MW of generation capacity being added between 2007 and 2012, power supply was still 9% less than demand in 2012. The government now has a target to increase power generation capacity by 88,537 MW by 2017.

The Structure of the Indian Power Market Around 80% of the installed capacity is currently in the hands of the government, with private companies only controlling 12% of the capacity.

Electricity supply in India is the sole responsibility of the Government of India and the states. The Union Government controls the Central Electricity

Authority (CEA), the main regulatory body, and the central generating companies, such as the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).

These are bulk power generators who sell their entire output to state-run utilities. The states control the State Electricity Boards (SEB), which generate power and account for most of the distribution in the country. The states have also licensed five private power utilities for generation and distribution, such as Tata Electric Companies.

The bulk of electricity generation is however, managed by the SEB’s. The five private power plant utilities, generate at least a portion of the power distributed by them. The licensees have monopoly distribution rights over predetermined geographical areas and they can not distribute power beyond these regions without government consent. However, they do not face any threat of competition within their licensed areas till the expiry of the licenses.

Besides the more established private power producers like TATA and Reliance, an increasing number of new IPP’s and private companies have been encouraged to participate in the Indian power market, in order to promote investment and meet capacity addition targets (for more information, see our Private Sector Overview later in the issue).

An Ultra-Mega Big Idea In order to help India reach their enormous energy goals and to open up the Indian power industry, the Indian Government has began the rapid development of 16 ultra-mega 4000 MW fossil fueled power plants, most of which will be coal-fired.

The Ministry of Power launched this unique initiative in 2005-06. The scheme aims to build large capacities at competitive costs in order to sell power at low tariffs to consumers. The projects are awarded to developers on tariff-based international competitive bidding on a Build-Own-Operate basis.

The Power Finance Corporation (PFC) the financial institution under the Ministry of Power (MoP),is the nodal agency for getting the basic infrastructure like land, water supply, and environment clearances for the UMPP’s.

This overview will take a look at the UMPP thermal projects that have been awarded to companies such as NTPC, Reliance and TATA Power, as well as some of the other large scale thermal projects being

Fast Facts - India India is the world’s largest democracy, with a population of 1.2 billion Governed by a central body and 28 state authorities Hindi and English are the official languages of India. The government also recognises 17 other languages Main Exports include agricultural products, textiles, gems, engineering goods and chemicals The GNI per capita is US $1,410 (World Bank, 2011) India’s installed generating capacity as of January 2013 comprised of 141,714 MW of thermal power, 39,416 MW of hydropower, 4,780 MW of nuclear power and 25,856 MW of renewable power Over 40% of India’s population has no access to electricity India’s electricity demand is projected to more than triple between 2005 and 2030 The largest addition of electricity per year up to now was nearly 18 GW during the fiscal year 2011-12 India has the world’s fourth largest estimated coal reserves at approximately 276 billion tons

w

developed by those companies. It will also look at the reasons why India’s best intentions are not being seen through as quickly as they would like, and how these delays are causing even more problems for power hungry India.

National Thermal Power Company (NTPC) NTPC is India’s largest power company, and was set up in 1975 to accelerate power development in India. Almost exclusively owned by the state, NTPC is now emerging as a diversified power major with a presence in the entire value chain of the power generation business.

The total installed capacity of the company is 40,674 MW (including JVs), utilizing coal, LNG (see Figure 1) as well as renewables. The company has set a target to have an installed generating capacity of 1,28,000 MW by the year 2032. The capacity will have a diversified fuel mix comprising of 56% coal, 16% gas, 11% nuclear and 17% renewable energy, including hydro. Although the company has 17.75% of the total national capacity, it contributes 27.40% of total power

C

H Ph

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PI_MarA

www.citec.com Citec is a specialized provider of solutions for the energy and power industry and other technology dependent industries. We provide EPCM services (Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management) for plant owners, investors and EPCsuppliers, being responsible for full scope multidiscipline engineering services ranging from feasibility studies to commissioning at site.

We also offer a complete range of documentation, technical communication and information management services. We provide consultation, information strategy and product/service information creation. We also specialize in managing and steering organizations’ information flow.

Our Expertise is within these industries: • Energy (Power Plants) • Manufacturing industry • Process (Oil & Gas) • Healthcare Our target is to develop long term business relationships that in the end create a competitive advantage for you. Our partnering concept is built on solid experience. Business relations improve significantly with our partnering concept. The communication is smoother and the risk for sub-optimization is substantially smaller in long term partnerships.

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india overview

generation due to its focus on high efficiency.

NTPC have been participating in the UMPP bidding process, and have a been awarded with a number of major of major thermal power projects.

These projects are at various stages of planning and development, largely related to land acquisition and securing the coal supply. NTPC is also still bidding on other available UMPP opportunities.

Chhattisgarh The Lara UMPP in the district of Raigarh in Chhattisgarh is in the privileged position of having a secured coal supply. The first phase of the super thermal plant, which will comprise of two 800 MW units, is already through with the long pending land acquisition process and could go operational in two

year’s time.

The total investment for the project is set to be Rs.30,000 crore. The second phase will have five 800 MW units. The first phase is to be implemented at an appraised current estimated cost of Rs 11,846 crore subject to environmental clearance of Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF).Electricity generated from the Lara project will be supplied to the states of Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Goa. Karnataka NTPC have commenced work on the first phase of the Kudgi UMPP in North Karnataka. The 4000 MW super critical thermal power plant will require a R15,166 crore project investment and will cover a 3000 acre area. The first phase will comprise of three units 800 MW.NTPC will build the remaining two units in the second phase by 2016.

Being the host state, Karnataka will get 50% of the power generated at the plant with the remaining power distributed among Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. NTPC chairman and managing director Arup Roy Choudhury said the first phase of the project would require 13 million tonnes of coal per annum and 162 cusecs of water.

The coal will be brought to the plant site by railroad, and the water will be sourced from the Almatti reservoir across the downstream of the Krishna river. Coal will be provided from Pakhri Barwadi in Jharkhand and additional allocation sought from a mine in Orissa is under process.

NTPC has placed equipment orders worth over Rs 6,000 crore for the three units. The steam generator order worth Rs 3,804.70 crore has been placed with Doosan Chennai Works Pvt Ltd, while the steam

turbine generator order worth Rs 2,282.90 crore has been given to Toshiba JSW Turbine and Generator Pvt Ltd. Both the orders are expected to be complete in a period of 52 months from February 17 2012, the date of notification of these orders.

Katwa The Katwa super thermal power plant in West Bengal is another major commission that has been awarded to NTPC, but the project has been struggling under the strain of multiple issues regarding land acquisition. The State has so far acquired 575 acres for the proposed Rs 9,600-crore project against a requirement of approximately 1,100 acres.

NTPC was informally asked to commission the thermal power plant on the available 575 acres, but NTPC initially refused, asserting that it would not be possible for the company to set up the plant on the available 575 acres. However, in March 2013, reports claimed that NTPC had agreed to go ahead with the 1,600 MW Katwa project in the existing plot.

However, these reports have not been corroborated with NTPC and the project remains in stasis.

Darlipali Darlipali Super Thermal project will soon complete the land acquisition for the first 1600 MW of their project in Odisha. NTPC claimed that construction for the Rs 12,850 crore plant could be launched during the second half of 2013.As soon as the entire 1700 acres of land is acquired, the company will go ahead with the process of floating the tender for boilers in second quarter of the next financial year, and the process for getting turbines and other equipment would also be expedited.

Coal linkage has been assured for the plant, with

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india overview coal coming from the Dulanga coal mine and water from the Hirakud reservoir. In the first phase, two units with combined strength of 1600 MW would be commissioned at a cost of Rs.11,800 crores.

Company officials are confident that the first two units will reach the generation stage in four years.

NTPC is likely to complete the land acquisition process for Darlipali super thermal power in Sundargarh district by July 2013.

NTPC are also involved in a 4000 MW UMPP in Gajamara in the Dhenkanal district, and are bidding on the Bedabahal and Visakhapatnam UMPP’s. This is in competition with TATA, Essar, Adani and JSW, to name a few.

Reliance Power Reliance Power Limited is a part of the Reliance Group. The group operates across multiple sectors, from telecommunications, to the infrastructure and energy industry. Reliance Power was established to develop, construct and operate power projects both in India as well as internationally. The company on its own and through its subsidiaries is developing a portfolio of over 35,000 MW of power generation capacity.

Accolades for the company’s work include ISO 50001:2011 certification for their Energy Management System at the 500 MW coal fired Dahanu Plant, the first in the world to receive such certification, as well as multiple Greentech awards for environmental excellence at their 48MW

China Versus India: Power Equipment Manufacturing The power industry in India has plenty of potential for investment. With so many power projects being built, opportunities abound for equipment manufacturers both foreign and domestic. It is also an expensive business, with utilities and IPP’s looking to economise wherever possible.

Enter the dragon.

China is dominating the power equipment market. Manufacturers in China are heavily subsidised, and can turn around projects in record time for heavily reduced prices. The result is that the Chinese are steadily pricing their competition out of the market. The private sector in particular use Chinese vendors.

Reliance, for example, have placed enormous orders with Shanghai Electric for their power projects, and Adani and Lanco have also placed large orders with Chinese companies.

China has seen an enormous backlash in the last year. In India, domestic power equipment manufacturers have campaigned against Chinese dominance, claiming that not only are Chinese prices unfair, but that Chinese equipment is of sub-par quality. Whilst they provide a cheap option now, Chinese equipment needs constant maintenance and degrades quickly.

TATA Power have been vocal in this issue, refusing to purchase Chinese equipment for their UMPP in Mundra, but they are in the minority. The Indian government has been threatening for a year to impose a drastic 19% import duty on Chinese equipment. However, a formal policy is yet to materialize, and the debate on how such a duty would affectboth markets is still in full swing.

CCGT Goa Plant, for their efficiency measures, as well as a LED lighting system.

Reliance Power has won three of the UMPPs awarded by the Indian Government so far. These include UMPPs in Sasan, Krishnapatnam & Tilaiya.

Krishnapatnam The 3,960 MW Krishnapatnam UMPP in Andhra Pradesh is a coastal development for importing coal, primarily from three coal mines acquired in Indonesia.

The coal requirement of 15 million tonnes for the project will be sourced from these mines. The power from the project will be sold at a tariff of Rs. 2.33 kWh to eleven procurers from four states – Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

The EPC contract for the project was awarded to Reliance Infrastructure and the main equipment was sourced from Shanghai Electric Corporation as part of a major bulk order.

Additionally, the project will be employing advanced super-critical technology resulting in higher efficiencies of the boiler and reduced emissions. Construction activities have commenced at the site, but it has hit many problems surrounding financial feasibility with the well documented coal problems and Indonesian price hike on coal exports.

The lenders for the project are a consortium of 12 banks lead by IDBI Bank. The lending was done on a project finance basis for an estimated project cost of around Rs. 17,450 crore with a debt-equity ratio of 75:25.

Sasan The Sasan UMPP is a 3,960 MW pit-head coalbased power plant in Madhya Pradesh. The project was the first UMPP awarded by the government.

The Sasan plant has been allocated three captive coal mine blocks – Moher, Moher Amlori extension and Chhatrasal – which have reserves in excess 750 million tones. It is the world’s largest integrated coal mine and power project and this exciting development is explained in depth from a technical perspective with Reliance further in the issue.

Tiliaya Reliance Power’s third government awarded UMPP project is the Tiliaya UMPP in Jharkhand. The pit head power plant will have a generating capacity of 3,960 MW. The project has received land and environmental clearance, and has been allocated two captive coal mine blocks – Kerandari ‘B’ and ‘C. The mines are located at a distance of 115 kilometers from the project site. The mine plan envisages production of almost 40 million tones of coal per annum. The

‘According to the World Bank, roughly 40% of residences in India are without electricity. India suffers from daily power outages in homes and factories across the country, hurting industrial and agricultural production.’

water required for the power plant will come from the Tilaiya reservoir which is located at a distance of 4 kilometers from the power plant.

The power generated form Tilaiya Power Plant will be supplied to 18 procurers from 10 states in northern and eastern India at a levelized tariff of Rs. 1,77 per kWh. The power project is expected to start generating power from 2015. The Tiliaya project will also be employing supercritical technology. The power and coal mine put together are estimated to cost around Rs 24,000 crore. The financial closure process for the project has been initiated and it is expected that the project would be financed at a debt to equity ratio of 75:25.

TATA Power Tata Power is India’s largest integrated private power company with a significant international presence.

From fuel and logistics to generation, transmission and distribution, TATA Power generates power from thermal and renewable energy applications.

TATA Power currently has a generation capacity of 8,500 MW, of which 7647 MW is from thermal applications, and aim to increase that capacity to 25,000 MW by 2017.

TATA Power was awarded one of the governments UMPP’s, which is the first operational plant of the scheme. The Mundra UMPP has 6 units of 660 MW, and is already hooked up to the grid. The plant is run

by TATA Power’s wholly owned subsidiary, Coastal Gujarat Power Limited (CGPL), and is arguably the most energy efficient coal based thermal power plant in the country, using supercritical technology.

The boiler has been supplied from Doosan and the turbine from Toshiba.

The project was designed to be run on imported

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coal, and will supply power to five states namely Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra in Western India and to Haryana and Punjab in Northern India.

It will provide a competitive source of power and help meet these states’ growing demand for electricity.

The Big Fuel Issue These massive coal fired projects are all very well, but their success relies on a significant and stable supply of coal. Such projects have added to India’s anticipated demand for coal, which is supposed to rise by 41% by 2017. Unfortunately, coal supply has become very difficult to secure in India. Existing coal plants aren’t able to meet production targets for generation, and some have even had to shut down or run on low plant load factors because of coal shortages, with NTPC’s Kaniha plant closing in March. Additionally, the UMPP’s, as well as other large scale thermal projects, have faced massive delays because they can’t ensure supply.

Largely, this is down to intense environmental restrictions. Developers wanting to mine India’s plentiful coal reserves cannot gain land clearance, with the government’s MOEF banning developers from clearing forestry. Even if clearance is gained, getting it is extremely time consuming and expensive, and without it the developer will not receive a mining lease grant. The reasons for these delays and refusals, according to the MOEF, is because mining destroys the biodiversity of the land, and as a result many developers have to undertake expensive and time consuming environmental impact and management studies. This further delays or restricts the feasibility of large scale power projects.

It seems peculiar that two governmental bodies can be so opposed in such an important issue as

coal mining and power generation. The MOEF’s justification for such behavior is a desire for ‘sustainable development’. In an interview with PI Magazine last year, the then Special Secretary of the MOEF, Mr. J.M. Mauskar, stated that economic and social development in order to eradicate poverty has to be balanced with maintaining ecological and environmental security. This is an excellent point, but for the companies who have paid millions to secure coal blocks in order to generate power for the millions of Indians living in power poverty, such an argument can ring a bit hollow.

For the developers who don’t have access to domestic coal blocks, or have had their way to them obstructed, their only choice to power the UMPP’s and other large thermal projects is to import coal, and it doesn’t take an industry expert to realize that importing such desirable cargo can become expensive and complicated. Currently, imported coal is three times costlier than indigenous coal, and this will have direct impact on the cost of the power production; costs that have to be passed on to the consumer.

Many Indian power generators have secured coal allocation from places such as Africa, Australia and Indonesia. However, these countries have begun to hike up the prices of coal and export taxes in order to capitalize on India’s need to secure supply. For example, the Indonesian Government have recently implemented mandates that require Indonesian coal producers to allocate 24.2% of their annual production for domestic use, a hefty tax on coal exports, and has based coal prices on the international market rate.

Additionally, Australia has also issued a draft mining law to impose a carbon levy on coal and

iron ore projects from this year. All of this paints a bleak picture for power plant developers seeking to ensure a stable supply of coal.

Conclusion India needs a lot of power, and it needs a lot of power now.

Whilst many countries have the luxury of being able to diversify their power mix in order to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, India’s primary concern is to supply power to the 40% of its population that are still living in the dark.

As such, the fact that the Indian government are focusing on the development of sixteen 4000 MW ultra-mega power plants that are primarily coal and gas based should not be surprising.

What is surprising, and somewhat frustrating, is that despite the best intentions of the government and the power generators, progress is being impeded by a lack of stable coal supply.

Whilst this is not unusual in the world as a whole at a time of declining coal supplies, India is sitting on massive coal reserves that they are not currently able to fully tap. This is because despite having the problems of a developing country, the Indian government’s environment ministry, the MOEF, are behaving as though it is essential to prioritize environmental stability over economic and social progress.

Whilst this is well intentioned, and to environmentalists very sensible, it may not be the best strategy for India’s superpower ambitions. The Indian government need to start better coordinating the activities of its individual ministries, so that both are working to the same goal: plenty of power, safely produced, for a modern India. power insider march/april 2013 17

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sasan ultra-mega power plant

RELIABLY AMBITIOUS:

SASAN ULTRAMEGA POWER PLANT

T

he Sasan Ultra-Mega Power Plant is a behemoth thermal power project. Part of the Indian governments power push, the project will provide 3,960 MW to seven states and cost a whopping Rs. 23,000 crore. Taking on this mammoth task is Reliance Power, arguably India’s most ambitious power project developer. Alongside Sasan, Reliance have a number of other large scale initiatives ongoing with the likes of Samalkot, India’s largest gas fired combine cycle station, Tilaya another major UMPP, and the colossal Chitrangi project, which is expected to stand at an astonishing 5,940 MW on completion.

These power projects will be diverse in geographic location, fuel type, fuel source and off-take and each will be strategically located near an available fuel

supply source or load centre. The Sasan UMPP is a perfect execution of these plans, as the world’s largest integrated coal mine and power project, and the first for India. The scale of the project is unprecedented, covering almost 10,000 acres of land, of which 7,000 acres is coal mines. sasan power limiTed Developed under the Government of India’s UMPP scheme (see our overview of the UMMP scheme in “How Do You Solve a Problem like India” in this issue), the Sasan project was initially developed as a Special Purpose Company (SPC), and wholly owned by the Power Finance Corporation (PFC). The SPC, in this case Sasan Power Ltd (SPL), is responsible

for activities like site selection, obtaining coal mines wherever applicable, acquiring land, obtaining various clearances & approvals to expedite the developments.

After such clearances and approvals were gained, the PFC carried out an International Competitive Bidding process & awarded SPL to the successful bidder, who quoted the lowest levelised tariff, which in this case was Reliance Power. SPL handed over proceedings to Reliance Power on a Build, Own & Operate (BOO) basis during 2007. finanCing The financial closure of the project was achieved in April 2009 with a consortium of large Indian banks led by the State Bank of India. This was completed

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at a time when the economic environment was particularly challenging after the upheaval of the global financial crisis, which made for a compelling example of international cooperation and faith in the viability of the project itself. The lending was done on a project finance basis with a debt-equity ratio of 75:25, making it the largest debt on project finance basis across all industries in India.

Reliance also received a final commitment of term loans of Rs 5,000 crore from the Bank of China (BOC), China Development Bank (CDB) and The Export Import Bank of China (C-EXIM) along with Standard Chartered Bank in December of 2010.

The Chinese Bank financing was to support import of power equipment from Shanghai Electric.

In another of the project’s successes, SPL was able to carry out environmental assessment impact reports and gain land clearance in record time.

Environmental norms in India are extremely stringent for large power projects and follow international standards. Issues involving land and forestry clearance are notorious for holding up even an average sized power project, which paints a clear picture of the challenges concerned with an initiative the magnitude of Sasan.

The site selected was based on water availability, proximity to coal mines, minimal R&R issue, low agricultural productivity, absence of sensitive locations in the vicinity and proximity to load centers in both northern & western region of India.

Coal supplY The Sasan UMPP will utilize sub-bituminous coal, sourced from local mines. Coal requirement envisaged for the proposed project is 14.99 MTPA at 90% PLF & 4445 kCal/kg. The project has been allotted three captive coal mines, namely Moher, Moher Amlohri Extn & Chhatrasal. Coal production has already commenced from the Moher and Moher-Amlohri coal mines and Chhatrasal coal block has also received forest clearance and is rapidly undergoing development.

Plans for development of these mines were prepared and approval for the same was achieved in a record period of seven months, a significant accomplishment considering the governmental power insider march/april 2013 19

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sasan ultra-mega power plant restrictions that face coal mining in India at present.

The approved mine plan envisages the production of 25 million tons of coal per annum from all three sites.

The main water source for the development is the Govind Ballabh Pant Sagar reservoir. Water Resources Department of Madhya Pradesh Government & Central Water Commission of Government of India have allocated 150 cusecs of water from the reservoir which is sufficient to meet the power plant requirement of approximately 150003/hr, even during lean season. The most significant water requirement for the plant lies in the cooling tower make up, closely followed by the ash handling process.

The Plant Configuration The Sasan plant will ultimately consist of six 660 MW supercritical boilers, steam turbines, auxiliary units and hydrogen cooled generators, advanced coal handling system including dust extraction and suppression technology, closed cycle cooling systems with cooling towers, ash handling systems with dry ash extraction, storage and wet slurry disposal, and plant water and effluent treatment system. The steam generators have been designed for satisfactory and continuous operation with a range of differing coal characteristics. The condensate extraction and boiler feed water heaters, with other essential equipment for single reheat regenerating system are also provided.

During the design process, it was decided that the challenges concerned with the management of large hydrogen inventories would be mitigated through the introduction of advanced technology to produce the Sasan hydrogen requirements onsite.

The conventional methods that dictate compression and purification auxiliaries, combined with the continual operational costs in constant monitoring of the traditional hydrogen plant were innovatively

overcame through innovative US manufacturer Proton OnSite.

The Sasan UMPP utilizes supercritical technology, in which leading Chinese equipment vendor Shanghai Electric Power Company has been instrumental in manufacturing and delivery after success in the largest business contract between India and China. The bulk BTG contract was worth a staggering $8.3 billion, for a total of 36 units across a number of coal fired Reliance projects, including Sasan.

Steam Generators The Steam Generators are designed as a once through, water tube (Spiral), direct pulverized coal fired, top supported, balanced draft furnace, single reheat, radiant, suitable for variable pressure operation. The gas path arrangement is of two pass type. The boiler has a steaming capacity of 2134 TPH, at Superheater pressure 259 kg / cm2 and superheater temperature 571 °C. The furnace is a radiant, dry bottom type with tangential wall firing and enclosed by water cooled and all welded membrane walls. The furnace bottom is suitable for installation of a water impounded bottom ash hopper. The coal burners are of low NOx emissions type.

The fuel oil system uses Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) and Light Diesel Oil (LDO) for the boiler startup as well as for flame stabilization during low load operation. The boilers consists of a balanced draft system with two axial type FD fans and two axial type ID fans and two tri-sector regenerative rotary type air pre-heaters.

The supercritical technology employed by the Reliance has a number of advantages: it improves power plant efficiency, reduces the coal consumption and key emissions across NOx, S02 and particulate,

it reduces the requirement of ask dyke land and consumptive water use, and reduces the start-up time of the boiler.

The improvement in overall thermal efficiency of the plant compared to subcritical parameters will be at least 2%. The efficiency of the thermodynamic process of a coal-fired power plant describes how much of the energy that is fed into the cycle is converted into electrical energy. The greater the output of electrical energy for a given amount of energy input, the higher the efficiency.

As a result of this higher efficiency, the Sasan power project will consume approximately 1.5 million tons per year lesser coal compared to the subcritical plant of comparable size, which in turn would reduce GHG emissions by 14%.

The basic advantages of the supercritical boilers from Shanghai Electric do not finish at emission reduction and coal consumption. The boilers have excellent availability, easily comparable with that of an existing subcritical plant and surprisingly the plant costs are also comparable with subcritical technology. Other key features include a sliding pressure operation due to the once through system, uniform distribution of heat due to the spiral wall arrangement leading to reduced boiler tube failure, which thereby improves system continuity and availability of the station. The system offers low thermal stress in the turbine and is fully compatible with biomass co-firing.

Coal is transported to the project site through an advanced single belt overland conveyor system, which is India’s longest, at a staggering 14.2 km. The coal handling plant will then have facilities for receiving, unloading, crushing and conveying the pulverized coal to boiler bunkers and stacking/reclaiming the coal to and from the crushed coal stockyards. The pulverizers are bowl mills of the vertical spindle type.

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sasan ultra-mega power plant

Steam Turbines The steam turbines are of tandem compound, single reheat, regenerative, condensing, multi cylinder design with combined HP-IP and two LP cylinders, directly coupled with the generator.

The fixed blades of the last stages are hollow, and are provided with slots to draw away water droplets to the condenser. The LP rotor blades are designed to operate in a speed range corresponding to 47.5 Hz to 51.5 Hz grid frequency. The turbine is also provided with a digital electro-hydraulic control system.

Environmental Impact Reliance have taken responsibility for emission control in a serious manner for Sasan, and the Electro Static Precipitator (ESP) is a classic example of this, designed with an efficiency of 99.97% to limit suspended particulate matter concentration to 50 mg/Nm3.

By employing supercritical technology with higher steam parameters, the project will consume approximately 1.25 million Tons of coal per year less than subcritical plants of similar size. It would also abate CO2 emissions by 91.75 Million Tons (3.67X25) over the projects 25 year lifespan.

With these factors in mind, Sasan UMPP is one of the greenest coal based power plants in India. In recognition of this technological achievement, the plant was granted CDM status, allowing Reliance to trade in any carbon credits earned over a ten year period, which will be approximately 2.2 Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) per annum. A simultaneous milestone on the carbon credits front was that Sasan became the world’s largest coal plant to be eligible and subsequently recognized by the

Clean Development Mechanism Executive Board.

Of course operating at such enhanced parameters and temperatures presents a remarkable amount of strain on key components and Reliance have vowed to remain extremely vigilant in preemptive maintenance and continual performance improvement. During actual operation they are insistent that the energy conversion efficiencies will be improved further as a result of efforts in the best possible operation and maintenance practises, the undertaking of combustion tuning on a regular basis and the continuous monitoring of process parameters to maintain design values.

Similarly, the best available control technologies would be adopted for mining operations, thereby reducing the emissions further and in the most environmentally friendly manner across the entire ‘mine integrated power project’, adopting all energy conservation factors to support the economic development of India and support its strategies for low carbon emissions.

Plant Progress The Sasan UMPP is not only on track, but has started producing power ahead of schedule. The first 660 MW unit was fully synchronized in March 2013, and has also been connected to the National Grid.

The electricity generated from the project will be sold to 14 distribution companies across seven states, namely Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, and Uttaranchal, and will benefiting an estimated 350 million people for 25 years.

Alongside the project’s success, have also been a number of hurdles and challenges that Reliance

Power have had to overcome. Predictably for India, there was controversy surrounding the coal allocation.

The Sasan UMPP has secured ample fuel stock from the Moher and Moher-Amlohri and Chhatrasal blocks, and planned to utilize any additional coal for the nearby Chitrangi power project.

With tensions rising over coal allocation domestically and internationally, the prospect of using surplus coal for additional Reliance projects was met with much opposition from a number of quarters. Despite this resistance, Reliance were fortunately granted permission to use surplus coal from these mines to fuel the Chitrangi power project, ultimately benefiting a vast number of the Indian population through stable access to electricity.

The Sasan UMPP will supply power at an extremely competitive levelised tariff of Rs 1.196/ kWh. The low tariff of the project is primarily due to the low cost of generation owing to economies of scale, its pit head location and captive mines, resulting in better cost control and low financing costs through improved financial planning. Circumstances have changed considerably since this tariff was decided almost five years ago, with alterations in law during the construction period and an unprecedented and uncontrollable depreciation of the Indian rupee.

Given the scale of the project and timescale for completion, many of these issues were unforeseeable and for some other power producers and project developers in similar positions, unsolvable. It has been a fantastic consolidated effort from the Reliance team to overcome these challenges and with the first unit of Sasan in commercial generation, light is now beginning to show at the end of the tunnel for India’s behemoth power project.

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Hydrogen Selection for Sasan

Sasan Ultra Mega Power Plant:

Hydrogen Generation Selection Story

A

round the world, technology is changing at a very fast pace and also the sense of acquiring it.

So is the case in India, where companies and process plants are keen to incorporate newer and mature technologies adopted in other parts of the world.

Most Indian customers, including Reliance, strategically look at not just the total capital cost of a project but the total cost of ownership in order to meet the demanding requirements to justify large infrastructure projects and equipment procurement decisions. They are also keenly aware that there are several factors such as safety and reliability which cannot be quantified in monetary terms, but are considered important while deciding among the various options available.

The specifications of the Hydrogen Generation Package for the Sasan Ultra Mega Power Plant were developed as technology agnostic and permitted inclusion of age-old alkaline (KOH) Uni-polar and Bi-polar water electrolysis technologies for hydrogen generation. However, both Reliance Infrastructure

and their consultant DCPL (Development Consultant Pvt. Ltd.) allowed inclusion of alternative modern technologies and they gave MVS Engineering (the Indian engineering and integration firm) and Proton OnSite (the U.S. manufacturer) an opportunity to present a modern-day solution of how hydrogen is being conveniently generated the world over utilizing Proton’s advanced caustic-free solid electrolyte PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) water electrolysis generators, as shown in Figure 1.

As a part of the equipment selection process, senior engineering personnel of DCPL visited one NTPC site in India where Proton’s hydrogen generators have been in operation since 2005. The visit provided DCPL with the verification of Proton’s claims.

Modern advanced technology hydrogen generation creates a much more cost effective and reliable solution to India’s hydrogen needs. Due to several factors detailed below, Reliance decided to procure Proton’s advanced hydrogen generator for their hydrogen cooling requirements for the Sasan project,

well aware that in the future as their needs grow, they will have invested in a technology and product that can scale up with their future needs.

Smaller Foot Print: Proton’s hydrogen generators have a very compact footprint, saving considerable construction and civil costs. The complete hydrogen generator is packaged in very compact cabinets contrary to conventional alkaline hydrogen generators that have a very large foot print involving several skids requiring several different rooms for various equipment siting and installation. Proton’s philosophy of plant design also reduces drastically the time required for installation of the equipment and also the time required for commissioning and plant operation. The hydrogen generator is already fully tested prior to shipment to the site and therefore only requires mechanical and electrical connections to be made prior to start up. There is no need for additional site erection, assembly, or mixing of chemicals.

Very low maintenance cost: Conventional alkaline hydrogen generators are prone to very high maintenance costs due the corrosive nature of the KOH or NaOH used as electrolyte, while Proton hydrogen generators, using only pure demineralized water requires less than eight hours of preventative maintenance per year involving marginal costs. Since there are no caustic chemicals used, critical parts such as valves, pumps, switched and sensors last an incredibly long time thereby resulting with high reliability and low maintenance requirements.

Fewer outages associated with lower maintenance and higher equipment reliability leads to higher productivity, which results in lower cost of ownership of the total plant.

In addition, making hydrogen with Proton’s equipment based on PEM technology requires fewer steps from water to pure dry hydrogen.

This results with a much simpler system to operate and maintain. Figure 2 illustrates the flow scheme of typical alkaline based system to a Proton PEM system.

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Figure 1 – Electrolyzer cell stack image

Figure 2

Operational Ease: Several operation personnel are involved in operating a conventional alkaline hydrogen generation plant, where constant oversight is required for monitoring various parameters of the hydrogen produced. Proton’s hydrogen generators do not require operators for continuous operation, which are designed to match the plant’s hydrogen needs automatically. This allows for a significant cost reduction in personnel expenses, and with the rising cost of labor in India, was a key factor in Reliance’s cost of ownership calculations.

Safety: Safety is a major concern at Reliance Power Plants and has been demonstrated in their acquisition of world class safety equipment for the Sasan power plant.

Though it cannot be quantified and can’t be reflected with numbers, safety is always a matter of deep concern. Proton’s hydrogen generators are, designed power insider march/april 2013 25

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Hydrogen Selection for Sasan

Figure 3

per internationally recognized safety standards associated with the safe production of hydrogen gas, allowed to be installed in an unclassified space and do not change the area classification to hazardous upon installation. This was a key differentiator that proved to be the right fit for Reliance, an organization never ready to compromise the safety of the people involved in the day to day operation of the power plant.

Proton’s hydrogen generator is safer than alkaline based electrolysers due to the natural physics of the process and materials used. Proton’s equipment conformance to international standards like ISO, CE, ATEX, UL and others sets it a class apart from the competition and hence gave Reliance the comfort that they were procuring world-class equipment, like none other.

Capacity: While Reliance specifications called for two 7.5 Nm3/hr hydrogen streams, they have chosen Proton’s equipment which will deliver two 10 Nm3/ hr hydrogen streams. This will far exceed their

requirements to satisfy the hydrogen demand of their 6x660 MW Turbine Generators.

Like all the industrial sized models offered by Proton, the hydrogen generator procured by Reliance is a scalable unit. In the future, for Sasan PhaseII expansion, should the need arise, Reliance will simply need to add one electrolyzer and one rectifier to the existing cabinet while all the instrumentation remains the same as they have designed for the highest capacity which the plant can achieve.

Modern Delivery Methodology: Like most hydrogen plants in India, the Sasan plant was specified to fill transportable cylinders with hydrogen at 150 bar pressure and then transport by truck to the power plant generator’s low pressure hydrogen manifold. Senior engineering personnel from Reliance are also very keen in utilizing the best feature of Proton’s hydrogen plant, that is it’s capability of delivering hydrogen directly to the turbine generator low pressure hydrogen manifold

for the daily make-up requirements, as depicted in Figure 4. This method of direct deliver is used at practically all of Proton’s power plant installations.

Figure 3 is a photo of one of Proton’s systems installed inside the Turbine-Generator building of a major U.S. power plant. The hydrogen gas is produced at sufficient flow, pressure and purity to allow the direct feed to the plant’s hydrogen manifold system without additional compression or storage. In the future, as Reliance attempts to optimize its hydrogen delivery system at Sasan, Proton’s equipment will be ready for the task.

In summary, Reliance Infrastructure is well known in India for its business acumen and aggressive cost control on the many projects they execute. It was this keen sense of overall costs and long term benefits associated with the life cycle of the hydrogen generation plant that led Reliance to move ahead with the most advanced hydrogen generation technology available, justifying their investment and achieving operational excellence for the Sasan power plant.

Figure 4

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tori plant review

Essar’s Gem in Jharkhand The Tori Power Station Review

T

he Indian power market is undergoing capacity increase like no other in world. From Karnataka to Bihar, new sites are being investigated on a daily basis. Traditionally, power generation in India has been dominated by state owned players. However, deregulation and a desperate need to meet capacity addition targets has led to the emergence of new, hungry, world class private power producers that are making a huge impact and contribution to developing the Indian power sector.

One of those players is integrated energy major Essar Energy, who are better positioned than most to capitalize on India’s rapidly growing electricity demand. The company is already behind six operational power plants throughout India, and have access to approximately 500 mt of coal resources across seven coal blocks in India and overseas. Essar also have access to 15 blocks and fields in the various stages of exploration and production of oil and gas in India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Nigeria, as well as

a pipeline of new power plants that dwarfs many others operating in the same field.

The Gem of Essar: Tori Essar Power, the subsidiary responsible for the power business arm, aim to expand their current generation capacity of 3,910 MW to 6,701 MW by April 2014.

The seven new units presently under construction at Hazira, Paradip, Salaya, Navabharat and Tori signify their intent, as this innovative and focused player power insider march/april 2013 27

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tori plant review seeks to overcome the industry common challenges associated with domestic coal blocks, imported coal restrictions and interim fuel arrangements.

This article will take a close look at one of the key plants being developed as part of Essar Power’s expansion, the Tori project.

This special power plant is one of Essar’s biggest and most ambitious projects to date, and is being developed in two phases, Tori I &Tori II, as three units of 600 MW. The development is located in Eastern India’s state of Jharkhand in the Latehar district and is expected to be completed by the end of December 2014. The project is being implemented through wholly owned subsidiary Essar Power Jharkhand.

Dry Cooling The development has been unique in its approach to environmental consideration, and with the requirement of almost 300 hectares of land, this has been no easy task. Originally on completion, Essar had expected the total project cost to reach approximately Rs. 57 billion, but in order to eliminate certain challenges associated with water use, Essar decided to undertake one of the most ambitious air cooled condensing systems that the power industry in India, and the world, has ever seen.

This will impact the capital project costs, but will result in dramatically reduced operating costs as Essar will need to purchase significantly lower amounts of water than previously expected. The cooling system is being sourced from quality Chinese system supplier Harbin Air Conditioning, who have amassed much experienced on the global stage for a range of differing cooling systems and requirements. The Tori project did have approvals to draw processing and cooling water from the Amanat and Damodar Rivers. However, It was decided that to mitigate risk concerned with water availability, undertaking such an innovation with direct air cooling on this scale would ultimately be a long term benefit. Economical impact of the system adoption is still under evaluation.

Essar had received approval for the use of

2,461 m3/hr from the Amanat river and 5,593 m3/hr from Damodar River as per a consent from February 2008 for boiler feed water and other critical site needs.

The Amanat river approval was sufficient to meet the water needs of the first unit of 600MW, whereas the water allotment Damodar River portion would be responsible for the remaining capacity.

Fuel Supply and Mining Challenges It has been well over 5 years since the Government of India allocated the Chakla and Ashok Karkata coal blocks to Essar Power for the Tori I and II projects, and despite all aspects of construction moving quickly,this vital component of the initiative continues to slow the development down.

The Chakla coal block is an open cast coal mine located in the Latehar district just 4km from the Tori project site. Production had been expected in the first quarter of 2012 but this has been subject to many delays. At present the mining report has been prepared & approved for 4.5 MTPA, with a plan to enhance the capacity to 5.5- 6 MTPA. The environmental clearance is with the Expert Appraisal Committee and formal approval is expected soon, the forestry clearance application has also been submitted, but the proposal is at state level and action is being taken to comply with the Forest Right Act. The mining lease at Chakla has also been applied for, but production start is not expected for 9 – 12 months after the lease has been approved, subject to environment and forest clearance.

The Ashok Karkata coal block will also be an open cast coal mine, but is located approximately 20km away from the project site. This mine is still at the geological stage and the mining plan will only be prepared after detailed exploration. Whilst the forest clearance area has been demarked, the forest diversion application will only be made after preparation of mine plan & land acquisition for infrastructure. This in turn has a knock-on effect on the mining lease and subsequent production schedule.

Essar Energy are currently progressing forest clearance and environmental consents required from the Indian Government so that mining operations can begin at these two sites as soon as possible.

These delays in securing approvals will unfortunately require alternative sources of coal to be obtained in

the early years of operation. As required, e-auction and imported coal will be purchased to provide fuel for this project and an application has also been made for coal under the tapering coal linkage system.

Construction After review and careful consideration it was decided that the plant should be developed in two phases as Tori I and Tori II. At the early stages of development environmental approval was achieved for the first phase on the basis of a 2000MW power plant, this first phase eventually became a 1200MW installation, so it was always a vision to modify capacity to reach full potential. This led to the application of the necessary authorization and emergence of the simultaneous development of Tori II, a single unit of 600 MW. The Essar Power Tori II ‘Expansion’ acquired land during the second quarter of 2010, with the company expecting the total cost of this phase to reach a cool Rs. 23.30 billion. Fuel supply arrangements were relatively straightforward through the dedicated coal mines already allocated at Chakla and Ashok Karkata The Essar group’s competence in large scale, heavy engineering projects has been applied effectively to ensure high standards in procurement and construction throughout this development. For the engineering, procurement and construction of this project, Essar Power had entered into an offshore supply contract with Global Supplies, an Essar affiliated company, and also selected Essar Projects India Ltd (EPIL) for onshore supply and construction of the 3 x 600 MW units at Tori I & II, whilst equipment transportation contracts were signed with Essar Logistics.

From a recent site visit and evaluation it was revealed that the 1,200 MW Tori I plant is 43.21% complete, whilst the 600 MW Tori II is approximately 16.17% complete.

Despite unavoidable challenges on the environmental front, construction of the plant itself is progressing very well. The boilers and auxiliries, supplied from China’s reputable Harbin Boiler Company, are being erected, with much of the structural work already in place for Boiler 1. The air cooling condensing system is also moving unhindered, with the system for Unit 1 seeing the raft work completed and

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concreting for the columns in progress.

The chimney wind shield work has also been completed and the wall work on the clarified water storage tank, is rapidly undergoing construction.

The STG and auxiliaries are being delivered by Harbin Electrical International, the Induced Draft Cooling Tower from quality Chinese vendor Harbin Air Conditioning, clad compound material for the Direct Air Cooled Condenser-tubes (DACC) from German pioneer Wickeder Westfalenstahl, and French conglomerate Alstom is also heavily involved in the supply for balance of plant equipment in the Tori plant, and will also be providing the generator transformers and the gas insulated switchyard. The emergency diesel generator set will be supplied by CAT dealer GMMCO, with the plants distributed control system coming from ABB. The fuel oil handling system will be taken care of by Thermosystems, and McNally Bharat

joins the prestigious group, continuing their success with Essar by supplying the ash handling system.

With equipment being sourced and supplied from competent and quality vendors from across the globe, once operational the Tori plant will be one of the most environmental friendly that India has seen.

Power off-take The power off-takes for Tori I & II will have a number of different destinations, but the main portion of electricity generated will find its way to Bihar. Essar Power have signed two power purchase agreements (PPA) with the Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) for 300 MW and 450 MW of contracted capacity from Tori I, for 25 year durations.

The PPA for 300MW was most recently secured following a competitive bidding process, with supply of power under the terms of the PPA being due to commence from May 2015. Under the terms of the PPA, the 300MW PPA will involve EPJL supplying power at a levelised tariff of Rs. 3.28 per kWh (approximately 6.7 US cents per kWh) net of transmission costs. The 1st PPA with BSEB was signed in July 2010 for 450MW of capacity at a levelised tariff of Rs. 2.64 per kWh (approximately US cents 5.4 per kWh).

Pursuant to a memorandum of understanding between Essar Power and the Government of Jharkhand, the state of Jharkhand is entitled to purchase 12% of the power delivered by this plant at a variable rate, and has a right of first refusal to purchase up to 25% of the power at a rate to be determined by the appropriate regulatory commission. The remaining power generated by this plant will be sold pursuant to merchant sales.

For the 600MW coal-fired Tori II power station, Essar signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Noida Power Company Ltd for 240 MW of contracted capacity. This PPA, like those with BSEB from Tori I, also has a 25 year duration. The PPA was secured following a competitive bidding process, with supply of power under the terms of the PPA being due to commence from April 2014.

Under the terms of the PPA, Essar Energy will supply power at a delivered levelised tariff, including transmission costs, of Rs.4.08 per kilowatt hour (approximately 7.6 US cents per kWh), which is the highest long term tariff achieved through competitive bidding in India to date. The levelised tariff net of transmission costs is Rs. 3.27 per kWh (approximately 6.2 US cents per kWh).The agreement is the first PPA that has been signed for

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tori plant review

the Tori II project.

The power generated at the Tori power plants will be stepped up to transmission voltage of 400 KV and evacuated by two 400 KV double circuit lines from the power plant to the pooling station near Ranchi.

Arrangements for this transmission to the pooling station are to be made by Essar Power JharkhandTori. The pooling station near Ranchi is being constructed by Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PCGIL), the central transmission utility of the Government of India. A transmission agreement with PCGIL has formally been signed.

resubmitted last year in Feb 2012. Projects are expected to be allocated linkage close to their commissioning.

Road logistics and rail siding: There is a proposal to develop rail siding at Mahuamilan to get coal from alternate sources, this is being seriously explored and an application has been submitted to authorities to strengthen existing village road.

The environmental challenges associated with fuel supply are a hurdle that all power developers must

contend with in the current climate for the Indian power market. With no problems on the equipment front, power purchase off-take and financing, it is only this matter that holds up the determination of Essar. In spite of the coal conundrum, Essar are being admirably proactive in arranging alternative provisions to combat the domestic situation and have absolute confidence in project completion imminently, with the first units coming online in approximately a year’s time.

Requirements for completion Whilst construction moves smoothly, a summary of the final hurdles are displayed below: Forest Clearance for coal mines: Abolition of the “Go / No Go� has resulted in resumption of the normal approval process for coal mines including Chakla and Ashok Karkata. The Chaklaforest clearance proposal is at state level and action is being taken to comply to the Forest Right Act. Ashok Karkata approvals are still at a preliminary stage.

Environmental approval for power plant: Environmental clearance of Tori I (Unit 2) and Tori II has been linked with the environment and forest clearance of connected coal mine. With mine approvals process now resuming, power plant approvals expected to be expedited shortly.

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DIRECT AIR COOLED CONDENSER TUBES

DIRECT AIR COOLED CONDENSER TUBES (DACC) MADE FROM THE ® ORIGINAL FERAN T

his year, one of the most famous manufacturers of the so called ‘Clad Materials’ by cold rolled bonding, the german company Wickeder Westfalenstahl, celebrates its 100 year anniversary.

And it is nearly this time that the company is producing the aluminium clad steel – today called FERAN® - as the first patent for this material combination derives from the 1920. Apart from other applications within the automotive industry or in household articles, one application where the properties of the Clad Material FERAN® are needed is in direct air cooled condenser tubes for the direct dry cooling of power plants.

Wickeder Westfalenstahl supplies FERAN® for this special application for more than 20 years. Over 1,000 power plants have been equipped with the original FERAN® with a 100% operation reliabiliy.

FERAN® for power plant cooling tubes from Wickeder Westfalenstahl has become the material standard for DACC. But what is a Clad Material and what are the benefits of FERAN® for the application direct air cooled condenser tubes?

In general a Clad Material is a two- or multilayer metallic composite consisting of different metal strips that are bonded together under high pressure.

A lot of combinations are available at Wickeder Westfalenstahl, for example clad combinations made from steel and copper, steel and nickel, steel and brass or steel and bronze, compounds made from stainless steel and copper, or also compounds without any steel, e.g. copper clad aluminium – only to name a few. Hereby the properties the individual material alone does not offer are designed by a clever combination of different materials in a “custom made“ clad compound. The advantages of the individual materials are combined together.

Have a look at one example: the copper-steel-copper cladding. This Clad Material combines the strength of steel with the good electrical conductivity of copper – that’s why this material is used for many applications in the electrical industry.

In the case of FERAN® the Clad Material consists out of the combination of an aluminium and a steel strip. For the DACC a tube is needed with a stable and medium resistant steel surface on the inner tube side and an aluminium surface on the outer side. The one sided aluminium clad steel, FERAN®, fullfills all these requirements.

Aluminium Steel

Steel as a sophisticated and inexpensive base material ensures the required strength, tightness and the medium resistance for the tube body. Aluminium on the outer side of the tube acts as a transition material, allowing the fin material out of aluminium to be joined to the aluminium-surface. With the material FERAN® all commonly known brazing alloys (4343, 4045, 4047) can be used.

In recent months other producers of aluminium clad steel appeared on the market. But quality and performance of the Wickeder material FERAN® is outstanding based on the long tradition and experience producing Clad Materials – and especially for the DACC-application.

The cooling of power plants is a very critical factor and each component needs to perform perfectly.

So also the raw material that is used is a critical component. That is why so many customers count on the Clad Materials from Wickeder Westfalenstahl.

For example in case of the DACC a delamination of the metallic composites could lead to costly bundle replacement work and plant downtime.

Therefore a really strong bonding – without delamination - between aluminium and steel is essential. No brittle regions in the diffusion zone between aluminium and steel before, during and after the sensitive brazing process are allowed as it is essential that the fins and the clad Al-layer have a close connection to the steel which is in contact with the vapour.

The most dangerous problem of a DACC system is a leakage caused by corrosion leading to a collapse of the vacuum inside the tube system. This will lead to a significant drop in the efficiency of the power plant system.

Another important thing during the brazing process is the thermal stability. Due to its inseperable bonding of the two metals and its thermal properties FERAN® fulfills these requirements.

For an optimum welding of the tubes the two metals are not bonded at the edges. The Al-free

edges that are achieved by edge free cladding guarantees a highly efficient welding process of the steel tubes: tube manufacturers can weld steel to steel.

The consistency of production parameters – which is guaranteed

by Wickeder Westfalenstahl due to the experience from several thousand tons of material - is essential to fulfill the requirements of modern direct air cooled condenser tubes. The following factors play an important role: • Material selection for the right combination of aluminium and steel • Optimization of the production parameters for heat treatment, rolling, surface preparation and edge free cladding.

Compared to other materials used in the power plant industry the FERAN®-tube consists out of an integral Al-layer of at minimum 50µm on the outer side. This avoids any corrosion of the air cooled condenser and guarantees a stable bonding and brazing connection for the aluminium fins – the heat transfer is and stays reliable.

The dry cooling of power plants – means the cooling with air - is – not only but especially – suitable for the cooling of power plants in areas where there is not enough water available for the cooling.

That’s why the dry cooling of power plants is really interesting for so many regions in India and Asia in general. And beyond that, due to its corrosion resistance, FERAN® is also the choice material for DACC in regions with humid rainfall periods.

Some of the new projects where Wickeder Westfalenstahl’s material is involved are in Asia and have already reached more than 10,000 MW in the recent months.

Nearly all leading producers of cooling systems count on the original FERAN® due to its benefits: • FERAN® has a minimum Al-layer of 50 µm to guarantee long lasting corrosion protection • The Al-free edges enable optimum welding • All market-standard Al-brazing alloys are suitable as brazing fillers (4343, 4045, 4047) If you are interested in the original FERAN® by Wickeder Westfalenstahl, the aluminium clad steel, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Your contact person, Mr. Hans-Jürgen Gauger, Tel: +49 2377/917 – 764, E-Mail: hans-juergen. gauger@wickeder.de is awaiting your questions.

For more information you can also visit the following website: www.wickeder.com

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NTPC COMPANY PROFILE

THE CORNERSTONE OF INDIA’S POWER BUSINESS W

ith a rich experience of engineering, construction and operation of power plants, NTPC is the largest power generator in India, having efficient operations that match global standards.

NTPC can be very aptly summed up in the words of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh: “NTPC is a great success story of our times. It is imbued with the spirit of ‘Can Do It’. My best wishes for this magnificent national enterprise.”

PI Magazine Asia caught up with Dr. Arup Roy Choudhury, the company’s CMD to discuss performance highlights and growth outlook of the company in a recent interview.

PIMA: Dr. Choudhury can you please give us an overview of NTPC’s business activities during FY13.

AC: Set up in 1975, NTPC has redrawn the power map of India. It is today India’s largest power utility with an installed capacity of 41,174 MW through 16 coal based, 7 gas / liquid fuel and 7 Joint Venture power stations. NTPC added a record capacity of 2,820 MW during the year 2011-12 surpassing its earlier best capacity addition of 2,490 MW during 2010-11. The company surpassed the 11th plan target (MTA) of 9,220 MW by achieving total capacity addition of 9,610 MW. In the current financial year, company has made a

Home to one of NTPC’s first supercritical units at the Sipat plant in Chattisgarh new record by adding 4,170 MW in the year 201213 (till mid-March 2013). NTPC has brought on stream one unit of 660MW at Sipat project and 500 MW units each at its power projects in Rihand, Mouda, Vindhyachal, Jhajjar and Vallur. Despite the constraints of domestic fuel we hope to close the FY13 with strong operational performance.

PIMA: How has the company performed financially?

AC: NTPC’s robust growth and operational excellence translate into sound financials. While we are yet to close accounts for FY13, in FY12 the total revenue crossed Rs 60,000 crore to reach Rs 64,830 crore, an increase of about 13 per cent over FY11. The net profit increased and stood at Rs 9,224 crore. The company paid highest ever dividend of 40 per cent.

It got ranked 5th among all the listed companies in terms of PAT for 2011-12.

PIMA: What is the growth outlook for the company in coming years?

AC: Commensurate with India’s continuing economic growth, NTPC has embarked upon an ambitious capacity growth plan with a diversified fuel-mix including coal, gas, hydro, renewable and nuclear. In the 12th Plan we envisage to add 14,038 MW capacity out of which 4170 MW has already been commissioned and remaining capacity is in advanced stages of construction including hydro projects. In the long- term NTPC plans to become 128,000 MW plus company by 2032, with 28 per cent coming from non-fossil sources.

PIMA: What are the key challenges faced by Power Sector? And what measures has NTPC

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Control room for the Korba power plant in Chattisgarh

S

The 2,980 MW Sipat power station

taken to tackle them?

AC: The major challenges faced by the power sector include inadequate domestic fuel supply, poor financial health of the state utilities, high AT&C losses, and delays in land acquisition and environmental / forest clearances.

NTPC overcomes these challenges through various initiatives / measures. To bridge the gap in domestic coal supply, NTPC is directly importing coal. We are importing low gross calorific value (GCV) coal for increasing the blending ratio and optimizing the cost of generation. Further, the transport of coal to the Farakka power project through inland waterways is in progress, which is a pioneering initiative by the company. Initiatives are also being taken to transport coal to the Barh and Bongaigaon projects through inland waterways. NTPC is optimizing plant layouts and focusing on continuous improvements in the design of various projects to reduce and optimize the land requirement. Continuous interaction and follow up with the states helps us in resolving various issues related to land and clearances.

PIMA: What steps are being taken by the company to contain its carbon footprint? Are the results encouraging?

AC: Over the years there has been a growing concern regarding the emission of GHG (Green House

Gases), particularly CO2, by thermal power stations.

Among the developing countries, India is in focus regarding this issue. In line with NTPC’s environment vision of ‘Going Higher on Generation — Lowering Green House Gases intensity’, NTPC has adopted a multi-pronged approach towards achieving the goal of producing environmentally sustainable power. The company is committed towards technology upgrades, research in CO2 fixation and low-carbon energy sources, increasing the share of non-fossil sources in its energy-mix, afforestation, and partnerships in international efforts for efficiency, mitigation and adaptation. Going forward NTPC will set up its future projects (660 MW / 800 MW units size) based on the high efficiency low emission super critical and ultra-super critical technology. Three units of 660 MW based on this clean technology are already under commercial operation at our Sipat Projects and many more are under construction and various stages of development.

PIMA: How is the progress in hydropower projects being developed by the company?

AC: According to the Corporate Plan of NTPC, as much as 28 per cent of the installed generation capacity of 128,000 MW by the year 2032 will be based on non-fossil sources including 8 per cent of hydro capacity. Hydro capacity of 1499 MW is under construction at Koldam (800 MW) in Himachal Pradesh, Tapovan Vishnugad (520 MW) & Lata Tapovan (171 MW) in Uttarakhand and Singrauli (8 MW) in Uttar Pradesh. In Rammam (120 MW) in West Bengal is also being taken up.

PIMA: Being the biggest power sector company brings additional responsibilities towards the sector. How does NTPC contribute to the sector’s growth?

AC: NTPC has contributed in the development of Indian Power Sector in several programmes of the government such as Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission ( JNNSM), Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) etc. Under JNNSM, Our subsidiary NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN) is the nodal agency for purchase of power from the solar power projects connected at 33 KV and

above grid at tariff regulated by CERC and for sale of such power bundled with the power sourced from NTPC coal power stations to Distribution Utilities.

Government of India entrusted NTPC with the rural electrification work in 5 states under RGGVY. NTPC is providing consultancy services to various electricity boards/ power utilities of the states for R&M work of their thermal stations.

PIMA: Workforce is the driving force for any company. How does NTPC manage and care for its large workforce?

AC: NTPC has highly motivated and competent human resource. NTPC featured amongst the Great Places to work in India for consecutive last six years in various surveys. NTPC employs over 25,000 people. With its strong work ethics and committed human resource, the company has been consistently getting various Productivity, Shram, Environment and Safety Awards and has been recipient of various international awards also.

Faridabad 430 MW combined cycle plant in Haryana

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FLAME MONITORING SYSTEMS

THE NEW GENERATION OF FLAME MONITORING SYSTEMS FMS IN COAL FIRED POWER STATIONS

By Michael Thomas, BFI Automation GmbH, Germany

S

ince the beginning of flame monitoring on industrial firing systems the development of flame sensors demanded constant efforts to optimize the detections system in regards to safety and availability. Semi-conductor sensors and micro controllers set milestones and enabled new principles of measurements and flame signal analyzing.

Today new challenges have to be mastered as combustion processes are being optimized with respect to reducing CO2 emission and to saving costs. The use of cheaper fuels (e.g. low quality coal) or alternative combustible materials (biomass, waste, etc.) is coming into focus as the fuel is offering a big cost saving potential at zero time.

VARIATION IN FUEL QUALITY AND HUMIDITY While oil and gas qualities are constant in most cases the coal qualities are varying as much as coal districts.

Especially the content of ash and volatile fluctuations is having a strong effect to the combustion. Shifting ignition zones, changing flame shapes and lengths are the results.

The same disturbances can be caused during the raining season. As most of the coal storages are outdoor, the rain will moisten the coal. Wet coal will lead to reduced combustion reactivity.

Flame detection might be difficult in case flame radiation is blocked by unburned coal. From the scanner sight port the flame will look darker and contain less flicker content caused by the inhibited combustion process.

MULTIPLE FUEL BURNERS There are many reasons to use multiple fuels in industrial firing systems but in coal based power plants oil is expediently used for start-up and firing support. Both fuels have to be handled completely differently starting from storage, transport to the burner and the burner design itself.

The oil is reaching the burner in separate pipes it must be atomized with high pressurized air or steam.

The oil-atomizing media mixture leaves the oil gun through small holes with high speed and is mixed with combustion air in front of the burner. The high discharge speed causes strong turbulences which

give the flame radiation its characteristic high flicker frequency.

Coal is transported with air in big pipes. At the burner the coal output speed is less compared to oil or even gas flames.

The flame frequency diagram shows the frequency profile of oil and coal fired burner flame during cold start. The pure flame radiation has been recorded with a BFI Automation Compact Flame Controller CFC3000IR at Ropar Thermal Power Station, India in 2006.

The measurement illustrates the variation of flicker frequency which corresponds to the mixing speed in different combustion modes.

HFO only: 140 – 160 Hz HFO mixed with Coal: 120 – 140 Hz Coal only: 40 – 60 Hz Fireball: 0 – 30 Hz Different flame conditions can be easily differentiated by analyzing the frequency information. If the frequency evaluation is accurate enough, the flame ON/OFF thresholds can be set at any Hertz and will allow the flame monitoring system to discriminate between different fuels and

own burner flames from other sources even with maximum sensitivity setting.

This capability proves itself valuable as it allows the operator to run the boiler with full scanner sensitivity without the risk seeing neighbor flames or the fireball. For 1 Hz thresholds is essential, that flame frequency information is available in the pure form, and is not filtered or converted into an analogue signal.

Conventional systems, which don’t have this frequency analysis, may need to reduce the scanner sensitivity. Unfortunately the same lack of sensitivity is not available if needed during poor combustion periods.

BFI Automation and Hitech System & Services installed same systems in India include BALCO, Korba in 2007 and CESC, Titagarh in 2011. At BALCO, valuable resources could be obtained by switching off the oil auxiliary burners since then. The key to success was that scanner is operating with full sensitivity while the 1 Hz frequency analysis discriminates oil, coal and fireball safely. Both customers connected their SIL3 certified Compact Flame Controllers in a network.

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FLAME MONITORING SYSTEMS

‘Different flame conditions can be easily differentiated by analyzing the frequency information. If the frequency evaluation is accurate enough, the flame ON/OFF thresholds can be set at any Hertz and will allow the flame monitoring system to discriminate between different fuels and own burner flames from other sources even with maximum sensitivity setting.’

CONVENTIONAL VS. COMPACT FMS DESIGN The very first flame monitoring systems were of simple design and consisted of the sensor and the output relay for the binary information Flame ON/OFF. The first flame scanner with an integrated amplifier on the market was launched by BFI Automation in 1992. Around 20 years later most new FMS designs are compact types.

The Indian market is responding with mixed feelings. Of course new technology is generally welcome but the idea that 100% of the electronics are mounted in the burner area raised concerns.

The use of micro-controllers enabled the FMS manufacturer to reduce the total numbers of electronic components, which is indeed the biggest factor for increasing the lifespan. SMD technology with much smaller components helped further to handle higher temperatures.

From the installation point of view the compact design offers more cost saving potential as the additional cabinet in the control room is not needed.

R&M can be done in running boiler condition by replacing flame monitoring system burner by burner.

This saved enormous production losses e.g. in Aleppo Power Station, Syria in 2011, who replaced all flame scanners by CFC3000UV on 5 boilers without stopping units.

The conventional system with an enhanced frequency analyzing feature is still a good option if space for the amplifier cabinet is available and the replacement job doesn’t need to be done in operation.

BFI Automation is providing FMS with a frequency based analog signal and an adjustable threshold for the fuel discrimination. Such a system is running at NTPC Talcher since 2011.

analyzing system at minor costs. All individual flame information and scanner parameters will be transparent for the operator. The boiler overview will assist him to identify an abnormal flame on single burners, burner elevation or boiler corners. These systems are even able to indicate dirty lenses and help reducing the maintenance efforts especially on coal fired boilers. Within short time there is a better understanding about the relationship between burner parameters and flame behavior.

For reporting, trouble shooting and comparison a software data logger can be started by the operator at any time. For permanent signal recording BFI provides an inbuilt SD-Card solution. A safety key enables remote access to each of the Compact Flame Controller from the control room for immediate intervention if required. Parameter files can be downloaded and saved centralized and uploaded to any flame scanner connected to the network.

PERFORMANCE TEST Free Demo-Installation including flame signal recording, analyzing and reporting can be arranged with BFI Automation and its partners.The equipment can be installed within short time. BFI Automation is providing plug-in adapters replacing the existing flame amplifier for temporary installations.

BFI measurements are based on the pure flame sensor output like Amplitude (variation in flame radiation caused by bright and less bright areas of the flame), Frequency (mixing speed of fuel and air) the DC content (flame intensity or brightness of the flame).

First analysis can be done within minutes at the burner. By using SD-Card recorders also long term effects can be captured. Flame signals can be compared under varying ambient conditions, different types of coal or even weather dependent effects like wet coal during raining season.

Difficulties with combustions are highly diverse and only a genuine case study will help us to understand.

FMS WITH NETWORK FEATURE By connecting all boiler flame scanners to a network single devices will become a combustion 38 MARCH/APRIL 2013 POWER INSIDER

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technology focus

Technology Focus:

Desalination Power Insider Magazine looks at the latest in desalination technology in our new ‘Technology Focus’

By Rachael Gardner - Stephens

S

lowly but surely, the world is coming to realise that the earth’s most abundant resource, water, is also its most scarce and precious. Despite the sheer volume of water in the oceans, a negligible amount is suitable for consumption or industry.

Additionally, little of what is clean is available in the more arid regions of the world. Technology has been developing to address this issue, however, and a robust and growing industry has sprung up to find ever more efficient ways of desalinating water. In the first of PI’s ‘Technology Focus’ features, we take a look at some of the most cutting edge desalination technologies, focusing on both commercially available and conceptual designs.

Membrane and Filter Technology There a number of different methods and materials used in membrane based desalination. The most commercially popular way of desalinating water is by using Reverse Osmosis (RO), a method which provides 60% of the worlds capacity of desalinated water. Theoretically, Conceptually, RO is extremely simple. RO plants use a huge amount of pressure to push unclean water through a membrane that retains the salt and other impurities, producing clean water on the other side.

The main problem with the RO method is that it is extremely energy intensive. The process requires a huge amount of electricity, which makes the process expensive and not very green. In order to make desalination more affordable, and therefore more available for those who need it most, new technologies need to be developed. Many of the developments in desalination technology involve improvements in the membranes and filters used in

the desalination process.

Nanofiltration Technology Nanofiltration is an already established method, similar and often used in conjunction with RO. Nanofiltration membranes can be used to target and remove specific impurities whilst leaving behind the beneficial minerals found in water that are often removed by RO. The fundamental principle of nanofiltration membrane technology is the use of pressure to separate soluble ions from water through a semi permeable membrane.

The membrane operates under a different hydraulic profile which is also known as flow filtration, unlike a dead end filter. Most nanofiltration membranes are composite materials supported by polymer substrate and manufactured in a spiral design as opposed to a flat sheet or tube geometry. The predominant model used today for industrial applications is the spiral configuration.

Heinrich Jaeger, the William J. Friedman and Alicia Townsend Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago, has invented a nanoparticle desalination system using nanofiltration technology, and is currently researching the commercial feasibility of his project.

Jaeger claims that his system has the potential to drastically cut desalination costs, as the high cost of traditional desalination is driven by the price of energy for high-pressure systems and the capital cost of high-pressure pumps and seals. Today, recovery of capital and electric power add up to as much as 73% of the cost of desalinated water.

“Our system has the potential to cut these costs by using an ultrathin self-assembled nanoparticle membrane,” Jaeger says. “Due to its extreme thinness

and excellent permeability characteristics, this nanofiltration membrane can be used for a wide range of nanofiltration processes at low pressures, including desalination.”

The nanofiltration membrane was developed by Jaeger and Xia o-Min Lin, scientist at Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials. At about 30 nanometers, it is the world’s thinnest membrane and has unique features that may turn out to make the crucial difference with this technology. The size, shape and chemical structure of the membrane’s pores can be systematically tuned to optimize its filtration properties. As a result, it [the nanofiltration membrane] allows 100 times more flow at the same pressure. In addition, the self-assembly process used to fabricate it reduces costs.

A grant from UChicago’s Innovation Fund is helping Jaeger to establish the commercial feasibility of his nanoparticle desalination system. Initially, Jaeger intends to target small, distributed or mobile water treatment systems. After being proven on a small scale, the technology could attract additional funding and be developed for larger systems.

“The potential of this technology to establish a new class of nanofiltration devices is an exciting prospect,” Jaeger says. “Many purification processes in a wide range of industries depend on nanofiltration and could benefit greatly from highly specialized and tunable parameters in a low-pressure technology.”

Titanium Dioxide Filters Scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), led by Associate Professor Darren Sun, have succeeded in developing a revolutionary nanomaterial called Multi-use Titanium Dioxide

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(TiO2). It is formed by turning titanium dioxide crystals into patented nanofibres, which can then be easily fabricated into flexible filter membranes which include a combination of carbon, copper, zinc or tin.

Amongst other uses, the scientists at NTU in Singapore claim that the material will cut up to half the amount of energy used to purify wastewater and reduce costs by 30%.

Called “Multi-use Titanium Dioxide”, it is cheap and abundant. When used to treat wastewater, the substance does two main things. First, it serves as an efficient, anti-fouling, low-cost filtration membrane, allowing water molecules to flow through easily while blocking the passage of contaminants. When used as a forward osmosis filter, it also keeps salt from passing through, allowing it to be used in desalination plants.

Secondly, when exposed to sunlight, it separates hydrogen from the wastewater for subsequent use in fuel cells or power plants. It’s able to generate 1.53 milliliters of hydrogen from one liter of wastewater per hour, which is reportedly three times better than what’s currently possible using the traditional costly catalyst, platinum.

Besides desalinating water, it can also be used to help recover energy from desalination waste brine, double the lifespan of lithium ion batteries, make low-cost solar panels, and can kill harmful microbial, leading to new antibacterial bandages.

The team of scientists behind the breakthrough has set up a company and is looking to commercialize the material, and are also in talks with Singapore’s National Water Agency, PUB. graphene desalination A team of researchers at MIT and Lockheed Martin

have developed a way to use atom-thin sheets of graphene for water filtration, which could lead to an inexpensive and energy-efficient way to desalinate seawater.

Graphene is stronger than steel and thinner than paper. It can generate electricity when struck by light, used in thin, flexible supercapacitors that are up to 20 times more powerful than the ones we use right now and can be made in a DVD burner. Dubbed a “wonder material” by the worlds leading scientists, graphene is made of pure carbon atoms, arranged in a regular hexagonal or honeycomb pattern in a oneatom thick sheet.

“Graphene is pure carbon that is made in a hot oven on top of a copper sheet in a vacuum,” explains John Stetson, the chief technologist at Lockheed Martin. “Methane gas is put into the vacuum and the methane changes into a single film of carbon atoms all linked together tightly like chicken wire (at the atomic level) 1,000 times stronger than steel and tolerant of temperature, pressure and pH.” By using this Nobel Prize winning technology, scientists at Lockheed Martin have been able to develop a product that could potentially be a “game changer” for the desalination market, according to their Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Ray O. Johnson.

The graphene sheet that they have named Perforene™ is more efficient than RO because it doesn’t need as much energy to push water through a filter. The graphene process is based on a chemical interaction, requiring very little water pressure compared to reverse osmosis. The graphene film is super thin at just a single atom thick (a thousand times thinner than an RO membrane), so that the

water simply pops through the very, very small holes in the graphene and leaves the salt behind. Lockheed anticipates that their filters will be able to provide clean drinking water at a fraction of the cost of industry-standard RO systems.

The technology is extremely precise, however, and the holes in the graphene sheet have to be of a particular size in order to let the water through but keep the salt out. The ideal size is just about one nanometer, or one billionth of a meter. If the holes are just a bit smaller – 0.7 nanometers – he water won’t flow through at all.

Lockheed Martin have been awarded a patent for Perforene™, and is currently pumping out “pretty big quantities of it” at Lockheed’s advanced technology center in Palo Alto, California. Still in the prototype stage, Lockheed are facing several challenges including figuring out how to scale up production, and how to transfer it because of its delicate nature.

John Stetson says that Lockheed is hoping to have a prototype to test in a RO plant by 2014 or 2015, where they would simply be able to “plug in” the PerforeneTM to replace the existing filter. Currently, Lockheed Martin, in partnership with MIT research partners, are analyzing the material’s economic feasibility, and seeking commercialization partners. solar desalination An alternative to the energy intensive fossil fuel powered desalination plants is currently gaining more and more theoretical enthusiasm, and is the most commercially viable alternative to RO: Solar powered desalination. Solar panels are used to either power the thermal method of desalination, by heating and evaporating the water and leaving impurities behind, power insider march/april 2013 41

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technology focus whilst a system of cooling and condensation then produces the usable water, or to power the reverse osmosis process.

This has several advantages, the first of which is environmental; desalination plants usually rely on fossil fuels to power the membrane technology or the thermal process described above. If electricity from the solar panels are being used to power the process, that cuts down considerably on those pesky emissions.

The second advantage is cost. Depending on the price of fuel, producing a cubic meter of clean water now takes between 40 and 90 cents. Though solar powered desalination technology is still in its infancy and therefore very expensive, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) have stated that desalination with renewable energy can already compete cost-wise with conventional systems in remote regions where the cost of energy transmission is high.

Elsewhere, it is still generally more expensive than desalination plants using fossil fuels, but IRENA states that it is ‘expected to become economically attractive as the costs of renewable technologies continue to decline and the prices of fossil fuels continue to increase.’

The cost distribution of solar powered desalination is dramatically different from that of RO. The main cost is in the initial investment, for land and for the solar panels. However, once the system is operational it is extremely cheap to maintain and the energy has little or even no cost. This is important to nations such as Saudi Arabia, the top desalinated water producer in the world, which uses 1.5 million barrels of oil per day for its plants. the world’s First large-scale solar powered desalination plant The Al-Khafji Solar Desalination Project will become the first large-scale solar-powered seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant in the world, producing 30,000 m3 of water per day for the town’s 100,000 inhabitants. The project is designed to cut the costs of desalination down by half.

Operational from the beginning of 2013, the plant was constructed by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), the Saudi national science agency, using technology developed in conjunction with IBM. Innovations include the concentrated PV system, lenses or mirrors focus sunlight on ultra-efficient solar cells that convert the light into electricity. The idea is to cut costs by using fewer semiconductor solar cell materials. But multiplying the sun’s power by hundreds of times

Reverse Osmosis desalination

creates a lot of heat. If the device isn’t cooled, the circuits will overheat and be destroyed.

IBM’s solution is to use a highly conducting liquid metal – an indium gallium alloy – on the underside of silicon computer chips to ferry heat away. Using this liquid metal, the researchers have been able to concentrate 2,300 times the sun’s power onto a onesquare-centimeter solar device. That is three times higher than what’s possible with current concentrator systems.

For desalination, IBM has worked with researchers at the University of Texas at Austin to develop a robust membrane that makes reverse osmosis more energy-efficient. The new polymer membrane contains hexafluoro alcohols, a material IBM uses to pattern copper circuits on computer chips. At a high pH, the fluorine groups become charged and protect the membrane from chlorine and clogging. As a result, water flows through it 25 to 50% faster than through currently used reverse-osmosis membranes, according to IBM. The new membrane removes 99.5% of the salt in seawater.

Phase two, construction of a new plant to produce 300,000 m3 of water per day is planned by 2015, and phase three will involve several more plants by 2018. Abdul Rahman Al-Ibrahim, governor of the country’s Saline Water Conversion Corporation

(SWCC), has announced plans to establish three new solar-powered desalination plants in Haqel, Dhuba and Farasan. conclusion There seems to be clear set of objectives when it comes to improving desalination and waste water treatment technology. The first is finding membranes and filters that can most effectively and efficiently remove impurities from sea and waste water, such as Jaeger’s nanofiltration technology. The second objective is to try and reduce dramatically the amount of sheer energy required to power the process of desalination.

Solar desalination goes some way to assist the latter; by using renewable energy, powering a desalination plant is far cheaper (after the initial plant building costs) for the plant operator and the earth. However, the key to cheaper desalination techniques seems to be within these new materials that can effectively clean the water whilst also cutting down on the amount of energy used during the process, with “wonder materials” like graphene and Multi-use Titanium Dioxide providing promising concepts for future technology.

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Proud to be Shortlisted.

Twice.

IDE shortlisted twice for Global Water Awards 2013: Carlsbad project for Desalination Deal of the Year Cape Preston plant for Industrial Water Project of the Year r WinricnaneWater Deal

Ame Year North of the

Cape Preston Iron Ore Mine

Carlsbad Project California, US

Western Australia

“This is the first time a pre-engineered modular plant has been built on this scale. It represents a revolution in the desalination plant supply chain. Cape Preston demonstrates that IDE is continuing to deliver innovation in every aspect of the desalination process, nearly 50 years after the company was founded.” Global Water Awards shortlist committee

www.ide-tech.com

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“The pioneering collaborative approach taken at Carlsbad will serve as a blueprint for the financing of other large-scale desalination projects across the southern US... It proves beyond all doubt that with the right determination, large-scale desalination infrastructure in the US can be financed – even in California.” Global Water Awards shortlist committee

IDE - 400 plants. 40 countries. 4 decades.

03/05/2013 13:43

india water treatment

INDIA’S WATER TREATMENT SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES AN INTERVIEW WITH THE INDIAN WATER WORKS ASSOCIATION

BY DR. ULHAS NAIK, HONOURABLE JOINT SECRETARY GENERAL

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Welcome, Dr. Ulhas Naik, to the current issue of PI Magazine Asia. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us. Could you give us an introduction to The Indian Water Works Association and their work?

Un: The Indian Water Works Association (IWWA) is a non-profitable, non government, voluntary body of professionals concerned and connected with water supply for municipal, industrial, agricultural uses, and the treatment and disposal of wastewater. The IWWA focuses on the entire “Water Cycle”, encompassing the environmental, social, institutional and financing issues. Founded in 1968 with headquarters at Mumbai, the IWWA now has 30 Centres spread across the country and is very active in conducting different activities in the areas of Water Supply and Wastewater distribution/ collection, treatment and disposal.

IWWA has a membership of more than 10000 plus professionals spread all over the country and abroad. The members are usually policy implementing engineers, scientists, hydro-geologists, environmentalists, chemists, and biologists, including Head of Departments - Government and Semi- Government organizations that carries responsibilities for water & waste water sector. It also includes beneficiary & contributing organizations like municipalities, water supply and sewerage boards, pollution control boards, irrigation department engineering & science colleges, and research institutes. It covers international organizations like the AWWA and JWWA, as well as national and international level industrial houses, consultants, vendors, and contractors.

IWWA is committed to promoting the transfer

of knowledge in the water sector and offers a platform for exchange of knowledge. Besides organising annual convention, the IWWA HQ and centres periodically organise workshops, seminars and conferences at a national and international level, many times in association with International partners. The IWWA publishes a quarterly Journal and a news bulletin “Mid Stream”. Whilst the journal contains technical papers selected through a proper scrutiny through experts, “Mid Stream” contains announcements, coverage and appeals for members from HQ as well as different centres. The IWWA has also created several awards for individual and centres. These awards cover a wide spectrum from social involvement to research, providing a boost to young engineers for their contribution to the society.

PIMA: The IWWA are involved with India’s Water and Wastewater sector. Could you give us an overview of this industry, and your work within it?

Un: In India, water and the water sector is handled at three tiers; Central Government, State Government and Local Government. While Central Government provides thrust on policies and provides grants under various mechanisms, it is state government and local government that actually implement the schemes.

Previously, the state government usually undertook the responsibilities for implementation of local governments, especially urban bodies’ water supply and sanitation schemes, as well as catering to the needs of non-urban areas and rural areas. At present there is a trend that majority of urban bodies are planning and implementing schemes on their own, tapping funds from central and state government as per the prevailing mechanism.

Recently, the Government of India, in its most fundamental planning, introduced the UIDSSMT and JNNURM schemes for providing finance in form of grants that have benefited many cities and upcoming towns by improving their overall infrastructure. On the water supply and sanitation front, this has certainly helped many authorities to rehabilitate their existing water supply schemes and also to augment various essential components.

This adequate water supply will also have benefitted consumers’ over all hygiene due to proper sanitation.

A broad analysis of the funds disbursed under these programme indicates that about 60 per cent of the urban population has been covered during the past four years. Of the 5161 towns/cities as per 2001 Census, 4207 towns/cities are yet to be covered under the flagship programme. As per census, the percentage of urban households (HHs) using a tap as the principal source of drinking water has gone down from around 72% in 1988-89 to 70.4% in 1993 and further down to 70.1% in 1998. The coverage, however, improved to 74.5% in 2008-09.

While the funding programme is required to continue preferably under the same format or alternatively under some different mission to covering the remaining towns, now it is right time for those who have implemented the scheme to plan for efficient management policies to utilize these rehabilitated and newly augmented water and sewerage infrastructure assets, including treatment facilities. These policies must ensure maximum consumer satisfaction and shall also aim at improving the financial status of the water authorities to manage their system on their own.

In this approach, only overall service deliveries power insider march/april 2013 45

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india water treatment and waste water technologies for improving disposal qualities of waste water shall be the need of the hour.

Additionally, a lot of awareness at centre, state and local levels is required.

improvements benefitting the consumers in long and sustainable terms is possible.

On water treatment front, the majority of schemes are implemented with traditional treatment methods having treatment units for sedimentation, flocculation, filtration and disinfection. On waste water treatment fronts majority of authorities have adopted Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR) technologies as technical advancement. Very few are still envisaging membrane technologies as pilot plants.

PIMA: With your widespread localised centres, how does your individual advice and service vary throughout the country?

UN: India is a diversified country on many accounts and more so related to water supply and sanitation problems. City like Mumbai receive raw water with low turbidity while cities in North-East region faces arsenic impurities while east coastal cities have to struggle with saline water. Therefore every state in India has prepared their policies, of course within frame work of Central Government guidelines, addressing state wide problems. It has reflections on selection of water and waste water treatment technologies as well.

PIMA: How do you envision India’s Water and Wastewater sectors developing over the next few years?

UN: India at present is witnessing a rapid urbanisation. It is natural that the metro cities have to plan argumentations to their existing projects to cater to the additional demand. Other municipal authorities have to cater to these needs on their expanded city limits by planning new projects, and simultaneously plan argumentations to their existing projects for developments within the city.

New urbanised centres at state district levels are also needed and are bound to develop. Since these areas are changing over from semi-rural to urbanised level, many new projects are required for fulfilling the needs of the changing scenario.

PIMA: With regards to individual visionary plants showcasing Innovative Technologies in Water Sustainability, what specific projects do the

IWWA feel should be seen as Global Benchmarks?

UN: The Global bench mark project shall be selected from four distinct cases as follows: Metro City like Mumbai / Chennai / Delhi / Banglore Expanding cities like Pune / Ahmedabad / Hyderabad Developing towns like Ahmednagar/ Hogenakal / Bhopal Developing towns in hilly area likes Aizwal / Simla.

On water treatment projects still traditional technology have been preferred expect certain changes in clariflocculation process by way introducing tube settlers and certain local changes in filtration process.

On waste water treatment projects, many cities including listed above and from hilly areas, are now opting for SBR technologies, Panipat and Agra cities are experimenting UASB technology with Down flow hanging sponge reactor technology and Chennai city has opted for desalination technology.

PIMA: With India experiencing such large scale and vast urban and industrial infrastructure developments, how do you feel the Water Infrastructure can continue to support this?

UN: The industries in India are ranging from technology to agriculture and apparel, and they are vulnerable to the risks posed by a falling supply of good quality and quantity water. Decreasing water availability, declining water quality, and increasing water demand are creating major new challenges for businesses and investors who have historically taken clean and cheap water availability for granted. This lack of quality raw water is creating tense situations on water sharing among farmers, industry, rural and urban water needs in many water basin in the various regions in the country.

Many key cities of our country have been warned that water shortages are inevitable in the coming decades, and water authorities are urging companies and investors to examine all possible technologies for recycle and reuse of waste water. In city like Mumbai, due to acute water shortage it has now been made mandatory for industries to develop their own arrangement for reuse, and explore the possibility of desalination. Water treatment technologies for treating the present worsening quality of raw water

PIMA: The Chennai area especially is experiencing great success from desalination projects and technologies. How is the rest of the country utilising such references to implement similar advances?

UN: As explained in Point No 2, every geographical area in India is different on many grounds including raw water availability and its quality. Chennai city since faced problems on both these fronts and they have to heavily depend on desalination projects and technologies. A city like Mumbai, which requires more than 3300 Millions litre of water per day have tapped in past various surface water resources with reasonable quantity raw water availability at relatively better water quality, though located at distant places.

In this city desalination projects and technologies shall be more prudent for Industrial re-use. Likewise, every city needs to study the water resource availability and can plan utilising Chennai references to implement similar advances, at present or in the future.

Even today, due to influence of many socialeconomical factors, the per litre cost of water, considering the life cycle cost, for developing new surface water project is one of the cheapest options to ensure a stable supply of fresh water. In some regions in India, a number of issues need to be attended to in order to introduce other systems of producing fresh water, like desalination. Issues such as a scarcity of water in proximity or the deterioration of water quality due heavy pollutions. When these issues are resolved, large scale desalination projects can move beyond the experimental stage.

PIMA: In terms of the entire ‘Water Cycle’, what implemented advances have you witnessed over recent years in India?

UN: As such, an integrated project handling both water supply and waste water disposal/recycle exists neither as a “show case” or in a planning mode. Even the project commissioned by government agencies at various tiers have seldom planned for such integration in past.

As such the water management business, in terms of the entire ‘Water Cycle’, is still in a ripening stage. Various regulatory authorities, consultants and prospective bidders are in grappling mode and are attempting various routes. In certain cases, the matter is complicated with employees sharing or sometimes the bidder shares too much information to consumers without proper guard from authorities. The political will is the single most contributing factor for the success of such project.

Dr. Ulhas S. Naik has a Doctorate in Environmental Engineering and 27 years of experience in business development, research and core engineering in water supply field. As the Honourable Joint Secretary General of the IWWA, Dr. Naik supports the council of management on various issues ranging from administration to technical and financial issues. Dr. Naik has also has organized many conferences in association with many international and national bodies.

D

A A st an

F th sy *

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h e-a rt t f o e t a t s g n i r O f f e s m o s i s t e c h n o l og y re ve rs e o y sa vi n g g r e n e e v i t a v o n In c h n o l og y e t r o t a r e p u c e R e ci a li st p s n o i t a n i l a s e D Ex pe ri e necdeds e&rv ice s co m m itt Glo ba l reae rcthi s, e loca l ex p

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03/05/2013 12:19

DESALINATION

ACCIONA AGUA LEADING INNOVATION FOR THE DESALINATION BUSINESS

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A

CCIONA Agua designs, constructs, manages and operates water and wastewater infrastructure for global industrial and municipal clients.

In the desalination market ACCIONA Agua manages 75 desalination plants with a total capacity of 2M m3/day , such as Tampa Bay 108 ML/d (largest in USA), Beckton in London 150 ML/d (largest in the UK), Torrevieja 240 ML/d (largest in Spain) and Adelaide South Australia at 300 ML/d (one of the largest in Australia).

Capacity is no constraint to the size of project we deliver, six of the plants are over 100,000 m3/day and 60 plants over 5.000 m3/day. We operate 80% of the plants that ACCIONA Agua designs and constructs.

ACCIONA Agua is much more than a world leading Desalination Company, we have also designed and constructed 300 wastewater treatment plants and 14 tertiary treatmentplants which provide water suitable for reuse. Among the WWTP that ACCIONA Agua has designed and is building is the Atotonilco

WWTP which is the largest in the world with capacity of 3,024 ML/d.

At ACCIONA Agua we are proud to have a long history in the optimization of water management, in which we have invested and continue to invest in our Water Technology Centre maximum effort in technological research, development and innovation, enabling us to become a leading company in the sector. The research team is engaged in more than 20 projects and the R&D center (located in Barcelona, Spain) features pilot plants dedicated to the energy optimization of water treatment plants and services. Thanks to this intense research activity, ACCIONA Agua has filed more than 14 patents related to desalination, membranes and reuse bioreactors and water technologies.

ACCIONA Agua has developed the most advanced control system for water plants in order to increase the energy efficiency; minimizing pre-treatment chemical consumption, improving pre-treated water quality through coagulation chemistry optimisation, minimizing plant downtime and making operational

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DESALINATION

flexibility to changing flow production rates as demand changes.

ACCIONA Agua offers a full range of services in the integral water cycle and their scopes of activity include the design, construction and operation of potable water, wastewater treatment plants, including seawater desalination ACCIONA Group is active in India since 2007 and ACCIONA Agua which is part of ACCIONA Group, established a 100% subsidiary in 2011 and has office in New Delhi. For more info you may contact : M. S. Akhtar , Country Development Manager: mohammadsaad.akhtar@acciona.com, Mobile: +919810412200, IFCI Tower, 12th Floor Wing A, 61 Nehru Place, New Delhi – 110019, India EXAMPLE OF A WORLD CLASS DESALINATION PROJECT Adelaide Desalination Project (Australia) The Adelaide Desalination Plant, (South Australia) is now under an operations contract forthe next 20 years by ACCIONA Agua and its Australian partner Trility. The plant is a vital component of the South Australian Government´s plan to secure the water supply for 50 per cent of the population of Adelaide, a city with one million inhabitants.

The design and construction of the plant has been carried out by the Adelaide Aqua consortium, in which ACCIONA Agua had lead the design and technology processes.

The technology used in ACCIONA Agua’s design makes this desalination plant a global benchmark.

The facility features an advanced pre-treatment

system using ultrafiltration membranes and a double flow system through reverse osmosis membranes.

This exclusive design brings a number of important benefits, such as: • Energy savings • O&M cost savings • Increased desalinated water production • Lower environmental impact DIFFERENT EXAMPLES OF WTP AND DESALINATION ACCIONA Agua stands among the pioneers in the development of seawater and brackish water reverse osmosis desalination, with a long and outstanding track record in the design and construction of DWTP and WWTPs.

Atotonilco WWTP Hidalgo, Mexico Total Capacity: 3,024,000 m3/day (largest wastewater treatment plant in the world) Population equivalent: 10,500,000 hab/eq.

Arroyo Culebro WWTP Madrid. Spain.

Capacity: 172,800 m3/day.

Beckton Desalination Plant, Largest in the United Kingdom Total Capacity: 150 ML/d

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www.acciona-agua.com

SOLUTIONS DON’T ALWAYS DROP OUT OF THE SKY We are working in India to ensure water quality to everyone.

And we do this as world leaders in water treatment, by developing, building and operating drinking water, sewage and desalination plants.

Because it’s necessary to be present not just on the five continents but also in the five oceans.

TRANSPARENT SOLUTIONS TO WATER PROBLEMS.

ACCIONA Agua India IFCI Tower, 12th Floor, Wing A, 61 Nehru Place, New Delhi – 110019, India Please contact M. S. Akhtar, Country Development Manager.

Email: mohammadsaad.akhtar@acciona.com

RENEWABLE ENERGIES

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WATER

INFRASTRUCTURE

03/05/2013 12:20

hydro overview

INDIA’S HYDRO INDUSTRY BIG AND SMALL, HYDROPOWER PROJECTS ARE HELPING TO ELECTRIFY INDIA

BY RACHAEL GARDNER - STEPHENS

A

s renewable resources go, none are more controversial than hydropower. The great irony is that hydroelectric power has by far the most potential for generating capacity, and as such is the most developed of the renewable energies. India has been building on their hydro resources for over a century, racking up 32,182 MW of installed capacity.

However, at 19% the current capacity scratches the surface of India’s vast resources, and the Indian government and power industry is determined to expand on what is a cheap, sustainable and effective means of power generation. Such an asset is essential to help alleviate India’s power shortage crisis and

control their carbon emissions, India’s total carbon emissions are projected to more than double by 2030.

Hydro growtH The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) have predicted that 11,897 MW of hydropower capacity will be added in the 12th 5 year Plan period (201217), including a contribution of 3,534 MW by private companies. This contribution from the private sector is significant, as the responsibility of developing hydropower lies primarily with the State agencies. However, the contribution that the private sector can make in opening up the power market and

stimulating investment has been recognized.

Development of hydropower, whilst ambitious, is not always speedy in India.

There are a number of challenges that must be met by both state and private corporations.

Various factors such as the dearth of adequately investigated projects, environmental concerns, resettlement and rehabilitation issues, land acquisition problems, regulatory issues, long clearance and approval procedures, power evacuation problems, the dearth of good contractors, and in some cases, inter-state issues and law and order problems have contributed to

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india Hydro: FaSt FaCtS the total installed hydro capacity of India is 32,182 MW the first hydro project completed in 1897 is still in operation in darjeeling India ranks 5th globally in terms of exploitable hydro-potential, which is 1,48,701 MW installed capacity India has 14 major rivers, 55 minor rivers and several hundred small rivers the Brahmaputra, Indus and Ganges basins contributes 80% of the hydro potential 6780 MW of installed capacity small, mini, and micro hydro schemes have been assessed 56 sites for pumped storage schemes with an aggregate installed capacity of 94,000 MW have been identified Only 19.9% of the potential has been harnessed so far

the slow pace of hydropower development.

These delays mean that there is a strong pipeline of projects at various stages of planning and implementation. Currently, there are about 13,500 MW of projects under construction and another 41,602 MW have been approved by various states for development. The Government has taken a number of initiatives in recent years to improve the functioning of the power sector and attract investments. There has also been a special emphasis on accelerated hydropower development, such as policy liberalization, financial support and streamlining of clearance procedures, as

well as a fast-track dam-building program. Over the next several decades, the government aims to construct 292 dams throughout the Indian Himalaya, doubling current hydropower capacity and contributing ~6% to projected national energy needs by 2030. sMall Hydro Small and micro hydropower schemes have also been recognized playing a critical role in improving the overall energy scenario of India, particularly for remote and inaccessible areas.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

(MRNE) is encouraging development of small hydro projects both in the public as well as private sector, with equal attention being paid to gridinteractive and decentralized projects.

The MNRE aims to have a small hydro capacity of approximately 7000 MW by the end of 12th Plan. With an estimated potential of about 15,000 MW of small hydro power projects, this is an achievable target. The focus of the small hydro program 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 utilization. power insider march/april 2013 53

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hydro overview State Projects Individual states also have their own independent plans for hydropower development. The West Bengal Government will set up a pumped storage power plant in Purulia. The project will have the capacity to store 1,000 MW of power and will require an investment of Rs 2,500 crore. A detailed project report is currently being prepared, and will be the state’s second pumped storage power project. The previous project too is located in Purulia and has a capacity of nearly 900 MW. The Odisha government is planning to set up 12 new medium and major hydro power projects, which can generate 2,000 MW of electricity. Additionally, survey work for a 600 MW pumped storage project at Upper Indravati has begun. Odisha has 11% of the country’s total water resources and has an installed capacity of 2,100 MW. The Odisha government has had to circumnavigate issues like submergence of habitats, displacement and adverse effect on the environment in order to set up new projects.

Government officials are hoping to complete the plants within 18 to 30 months.

In Himachal Pradesh, a 450MW hydro project is being funded by the Asian Development Bank.

The ADB has signed a loan agreement with the Government of India to offer $315m to develop the Shongtong Karcham Hydroelectric Project.

ADB is providing the 25-year term loan under the Himachal Pradesh Clean Energy Development Investment Program, which is an $800m multitranche financing facility. The project is expected to cost $750m, with the Government of Himachal Pradesh providing $235m.

National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) The NHPC is the state owned entity responsible for a large percentage of India’s installed hydro capacity.

NHPC has an installation base of 5295 MW from 14 hydropower stations including projects taken up in Joint Venture ( JV). NHPC has capabilities to undertake all the activities from conceptualization to commissioning of hydro projects.

NHPC is engaged in the construction of 10 projects aggregating to a total installed capacity of 4502 MW. NHPC has drawn up a massive plan to add over 10,000 MW of hydropower capacity by the end of 12th 5-year plan.

NHPC’s most recent project is set to be commissioned at the end of April 2013. The 240MW Uri 2 hydropower plant is a run-of-river complex, which was originally scheduled to be operational in September 2009, but was delayed by flooding, earthquake damage and labor disputes.

Once complete, the project will feature a 157-meterlong by 52-meter-high concrete gravity dam, a 4.233-km-long headrace tunnel, four 60 MW hydro turbines provided by Alstom, and a 3.615-k m-long tailrace tunnel.

NHPC currently have ten projects awaiting development, with nine other projects under construction: The Parbati Hydroelectric Project is a run-of-theriver scheme proposed to harness hydro potential of the lower reaches of the river Parbati. It will have four 200 MW units to produce 800 MW a year.

Subansiri Lower HE Project is the biggest hydroelectric project undertaken in India. Located on the border of Assam and Aruncachal Pradesh, the estimated annual energy generation is 2000 MW, with eight 250 MW units.

Big Opportunities: India in Bhutan

India’s foreign ministry plans to part-finance the construction of hydropower projects in Bhutan, as part of its economic diplomacy efforts to exert strategic influence. India’s ties with its neighbors have been fraying, and China becoming increasingly influential.

Bhutan, strategically located between India and China, has the potential to generate 30,000MW of hydropower but has a capacity of just 1,490MW. India will help Bhutan build 10,000 MW of hydropower with concessional finance, with the overall investment is expected to be about $10 billion. Around 90% of the electricity generated through these projects will be sold to India, which already has power grid links with Bhutan.

Of the 10 projects to be developed with India’s help, Punatsangchhu-I, Punatsangchhu-II and Mangdechhu projects are under construction. Project reports for the Kholongchu, Amochhu reservoir, Bunakha reservoir and Wangchu run-of-the-river developments have been submitted, and feasibility reports are being prepared for the Kuri-Gongri, Chamkharchhu-I and Sankosh reservoir projects.

Under the new funding plan, the projects will be developed by Indian state-owned firms such as NHPC, and through JVs, with equal equity contribution from the Bhutan and Indian governments. To finance India’s equity portion, equal contribution will be made by the Indian state-owned firm and the Ministry of External Affairs. The projects will be built with debt-to-equity ratio of 30-70.

Teesta Low Dam Project-III is located on river Teesta in Darjeeling. The Project will have a 132 MW capacity with four 33 MW units.

• The Kishanganga Hydroelectric Project will be located on a tributary of river Jhelum. The project involves construction of a 37m high concrete faced rock-fill dam and an underground powerhouse.

Generating a potential of 330MW, the project will have three 110MW units. The project is currently the subject of a bitter legal battle between NHPC and the government of Pakistan over the design of the dam.

The NHPC have also been active in trying to encourage the government to make investment in hydroelectric power projects more attractive.

The NHPC claim that the Return on Equity (ROE) is too low to attract investors. This is because of the idle equity during the construction period, and the prolonged construction periods associated with hydropower. NHPC has claimed that rate of the ROE allowed for the hydro sector is not commensurate with the gestation period and associated risk in construction of hydro projects.

The NHPC approached the Power Ministry seeking steps to ensure higher returns on investment in such projects. The NHPC has also requested the ministry to consider the possibility of amendments to the tariff policy of 2006, so as to extend much needed policy and regulatory support for promoting hydro sector.

Tata Power Tata Power is India’s largest integrated power company with a significant international presence. Tata Power has an installed hydro capacity of 447 MW in Maharashtra. The company has also formed a number of JV’s in order to develop hydropower resources.

An example of one Tata Power’s more successful JV’s is their exclusive partnership with Norway based SN Power. Together they plan to develop hydro power projects in India and Nepal. The consortium has recently won the 240 MW Dugar Hydro Electric Project in Chenab Valley in Himachal Pradesh. The run-of-river project will primarily feed the Northern grid, and has been slated to require an investment of Rs 2500 crores.

The Dugar project will be developed through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV ) being formed and owned by the consortium. A detailed exploration and design study will be undertaken to plan and finalize the project implementation. The Preimplementation Agreement will be signed by the Directorate of Energy, at the Government of Himachal Pradesh shortly.

The project is likely to have a dam of height of 93 meters with an underground cavern type powerhouse at its base. Himachal Pradesh has abundant water resources with a power potential of about 23,000 MW. About 6,672 MW have been harnessed till now by the central and state governments, private players and joint venture companies.

The Tata Power and SN Power consortium is also working on developing the 880mw Tamakoshi 3 Project in Nepal for which they have an exploratory licence. Tata Power also has a JV with the Royal Government of Bhutan under which it is implementing the 114 MW Dagachhu Hydro Project with Druk Green Power Company.

India Versus China: The Fight for the Brahmaputra When it comes to natural resources, neighbors aren’t always the best at sharing. A crucial lifeline to northeast India, the Brahmaputra river also runs through The Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It is in this territory that China has begun an extremely aggressive scheme of dam building.

Along with three other dams at Dagu, Jiacha and Jiexu, China is building the 510 MW Zangmu dam, which would supply water to China’s dry regions in the north. Indian critics fear it would starve Assam and neighboring Bangladesh of water in the summer months, and is being seen as a violation of international norms of sharing river waters.

In turn, India has begun to push their own hydroelectric schemes on the river. The government has given the go-ahead for the 800 MW Tawang-II hydropower project in Arunachal Pradesh.

Officials have accused the government of lacking coordination among departments on working out an effective way on how to tackle the ‘urgent’ issue, but in April 2013 the Indian government spoke out to reassure the Indian people.

The government claimed that the three dams will not affect India’s use of the river, as “most of the water to the Brahmaputra comes from Arunachal Pradesh and other places”. For some this announcement isn’t enough, with many feeling that China’s attempt to redraw the water map is a bullying tactic which, if left to continue, would equip China with a powerful blackmailing tool to keep India on good behavior.

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hydro overview

reliance power liMited Reliance Power is currently developing 5,292 MW of hydroelectric power capacities at twelve locations (see Figure 1 for some of the key projects). All of the hydroelectric power projects which the company is developing have been awarded to the company through a competitive bidding process. Reliance is hoping to cut the average development time of the projects from 9-10 years to 5-6. project name

state

capacity

Siyom

arunachal Pradesh 1,000 MW

urthing Sobla

uttarakhand

Kalai II

arunachal Pradesh 1,200 MW

400 MW

amulin

arunachal Pradesh 420 MW

Emini

arunachal Pradesh 500 MW

Mihundon

arunachal Pradesh 400 MW

Figure 1: Reliance Key Hydro Projects Reliance has completed various developmental activities for these projects. The company has undertaken the process of preparation of the DPR for the hydroelectric power projects and has completed the same for 1700 MW. The company had also completed the environmental clearance process for 1000 MW. Reliance has obtained Stage 1 approval for Environmental Clearance for another 2,820 MW. Reliance also have various subsidiaries established to implement hydropower projects. An example of one of these subsidiaries is the Tato Hydro Power Private Limited, which is currently implementing a 700 MW hydroelectric project in Arunachal Pradesh. The 4x175 MW hydroelectric project is supposed to be completed by March 2014. Known as Tato II, the project will incur a total cost of around Rs. 4045 crore.

greenKo Greenko is an excellent example of a domestic

private sector company becoming more involved in the recently opened up Indian power market.

Greenko is a mainstream participant in the growing Indian energy industry and a market leading owner and operator of clean energy projects in India.

Greenko currently operates 151 MW of Hydro assets spread across the northern and southern Indian resource regimes. Over 200 MW of projects are currently under construction with over 230 MW in development. The company’s medium term goal is to reach 1 GW of operational capacity by 2015.

Greenko are particularly interested in exploiting India’s small hydro capacity. The company selectively chooses run-of-river projects between 20-100 MW which can be developed within a cluster thereby increasing developmental and operational synergies.

These projects have minimal social and environmental issues and a low gestation period owing to fewer clearances and predictable construction plans.

Greenko has recently added six new run-of-river hydroelectric plants to its development pipeline.

Funding for the projects will come in large part from the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, which announced that it will invest approximately US$150 million into the projects.

The six hydro plants will have a cumulative installed capacity of 425 MW and will be spread across India’s Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh, both of which have attracted a number of interest from hydro developers in recent months.

The two plants located in Himachal Pradesh will be located in the Chamba District on a tributary of the Ravi River. The plants will have a combined installed capacity of 115 MW. The four projects in Arunachal Pradesh will be located on a perennial tributary of the Tato River in the West Siang District, and will contribute 310 MW of installed capacity.

Work on all the projects is expected to begin in 2013, and is part of the company’s effort to have an operational capacity of about 2,000 MW of power generated by renewable sources by 2018.

Greenko already operates 11 run-of-river plants in Himachal with 71 MW of combined installed

capacity. Also included in Greeko’s portfolio are 94.25 MW worth of hydro power produced by five plants in Karnataka, with an additional 58 MW to come from three projects being constructed. The company is also building a 96 MW project in Sikkim.

Greenko’s existing northern hydro projects have performed strongly, thanks to excellent hydrology.

The company now sees an opportunity to further improve portfolio returns through the addition of these new projects, which can connect directly to the high voltage transmission network and deliver premium priced peaking power. As a result, the new projects are expected to have a better than 50% plant load factor for net sellable energy and deliver a superior return on investment.

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conclusion hydro power is the ultimate opposite to fossil fuel technology. Whilst the sector has had its environmental issues, hydropower is essentially green, sustainable and renewable. however, whilst it has the capacity to produce multi megawatts, hydropower’s long development times and minimal investment returns put big projects at a disadvantage when compared to fossil fuels. these problems are especially key in a country like India, that is crying out for big projects that can flood the grid with much needed energy. however, potential is potential and the Indian government, utilities and private sector are capitalizing on it quite well. the focus on small hydro in particular is a good bet, as micro megawatt and run-of-river projects successfully circumnavigate the aforementioned problems. additionally, small off-grid projects will help to electrify India’s rural regions far easier than extending the grid. a focus on developing pumped storage will also contribute to developing a stable grid for those who have access to it. though often controversial, it is worth developing the remaining hydropower potential in India.

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alstom & asia: energy giants

ALSTOM AND ASIA: ENERGY GIANTS

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T

he Senior Vice President of Alstom’s East Asia Pacific Division, Wouter van Wersch, has given PI Magazine Asia an overview of some of Alstom’s notable achievements in project and equipment development in the growing Asian power market.

Alstom is a company that truly defines global,

BY WOUTER VAN WERSCH

operating out of more than a hundred countries within its Transport, Power and Grid Sectors.

Currently achieving great things worldwide, Alstom is particularly prolific in Asia. With a long history in the region, Alstom has been in India and Japan for more than 100 years and in Singapore for almost 50 years, playing an important role in developing the energy infrastructure in all of the countries throughout the region.

Most recent commercial highlights include securing the contract for the Dongbu Green Power Plant, the first ultra-supercriticalcoal fired power plant in Korea, supplying wind turbines for the Kawazu wind farm in Japan and the completion of Son La power plant in Vietnam, the largest hydropower plant in South East Asia. Alstom has also been involved in the Three Gorges hydro project in China, the 1000MW ultra-supercritical units, Manjung 4 and Tanjung Bin 4 in Malaysia, the four gas combined cycle power plants in Singapore,and the 800kV UHVDC project in India.

Alstom has made a number of investments to

extend their footprint in the region, both in terms of manufacturing and organization, which has played a critical role in Alstom’s success. They have expanded and improved their facilities in Asia, such as their Mobile Precision Workshop in Tianjin (China), substation automation manufacturing site in Pallavaram, India and coming soon a state-of-theart gas turbine reconditioning workshop in Vietnam.

Alstom believes that by investing in new facilities in Asia, they will continue to meet the growing demand for electricity in this growth market.

THAiLAnd Alstom was awarded a prestigious contract ahead of tough competition, to expand the North Bangkok power plant, and will be responsible for the construction of a world class gas fired combined cycle unit. Alstom believes that this award demonstrates the market’s confidence in Alstom’s cutting-edge GT26 technology.

This power plant is just one of many new power projects planned by EGAT and local IPP’s in

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alstom & asia: energy giants

thermal and renewable applications. Demand for energy in Thailand is predicted to grow strongly in the future to sustain economic development. Alstom has a strong track record in building power plants for both thermal and renewable sectors all over the world, and also delivering turnkey high voltage substations and services for the global transmission industry. With so many new projects in the pipeline, Alstom will continue to push aggressively to gain a bigger market share by continuing to invest heavily in their local presence in Thailand.

PT. Barata, and has also built a fine reputation in the high voltage market through a JV for transformers with PT. PLN. Alstom plans to continue boosting activities in Indonesia, both independently and through a number of partnerships.

Alstom’s currently has a Long Term Service Agreement (LTSA) agreement for gas plants in Tanjung Priok, Gilimanuk and Muara Tawar. Other activities include the manufacturing of 150kV substations in over thirty locations across Indonesia, 150Kv GIS substations in three locations, the supply of 170MVA generator step-up transformers for Keban Agung CFPP and a 275/150kV substation in Gumawang (South Sumatra).

COAL With coal being a finite resource and as the costs of mining are rising, Alstom believes that making the best use of the fuel when generating power will be a priority not only in Asia but all around the word.

Alstom’s supercritical technology is designed to maximize power output and reduce fuel consumption, whilst lowering the emissions.

This is among the many reasons why the company was awarded two impressive orders in Malaysia. The South East Asian nation has been seen as a pace setter for the region for implementing supercritical technology, and the units being added by Alstom at the Manjung and Tanjung Bin plants certainly reflect this.

These additions also reflect the fact that coal will remain an important part of the Asian energy mix in the future, as the strong demand for inexpensive energy will remain. At the same time, there are increasing concerns about environmental impact.

The most cost effective compromise is supercritical technology, and Alstom expects more countries in the region to adopt the technology.

CHINESE MANUFACTURERS The presence of Chinese manufacturers is having a big impact in power projects across Asia, particularly India, Indonesia and Vietnam, where project funding is coming directly from Chinese banks. For some companies, this has proved to be something of a challenge.

Alstom, however, are confident. They have an extensive manufacturing base in China and are capable of matching any offer coming from China.

Apart from this, customers can be assured of the quality of Alstom’s equipment. This is because Alstom’s expertise, global experience and state-ofthe-art technologies are a key differentiator.

Alstom has a proven track record and a long established presence in Asian countries, with the right technology, the most talented people and superior industrial relationships in place. Alstom’s customers have great trust in the timely delivery and the high quality of their services

INDONESIA In Indonesia, Alstom has been able to establish boiler manufacturing facilities through JVs with PT. PAL &

HYDRO The Xiangjiaba hydroelectric plant is a good example of how Alstom is leagues ahead in equipment

advances. The generators at the Xiangjiaba Dam are the most powerful in the world at 889MVA, and are based on industry leading 23kV air cooled stator windings. Additionally, the output from the Francis turbines is phenomenal at 800MW. This hydro power plant is proof of Alstom’s commitment to the improvement of energy generation technology. The company continuously invests in research and development, and Alstom’s global technology centers in Brazil, Canada, China, France, India and Switzerland create in-house product designs that ensure consistency in the design and development of Alstom Hydro products worldwide. The technology centers in France and India house turbine scale-model test laboratories and the technology centers in Brazil and China will soon have test rigs, as well. The high-tech test rigs are used to carry out experimental testing on turbine scale models.

NUCLEAR Despite recent events, nuclear power is big business in Asia, and Alstom is part of the rapid development of nuclear plants all across the region. The company has been executing major projects in China with Ling Ao 3 & 4 and Taishan 1 & 2, using Alstom’s highly respected ARABELLETM technology.

With more than 350,000 operating hours accumulated and an outstanding reliability rate, ARABELLE™ is the most advanced steam turbine technology available. It provides more megawatts of capacity with a compact, powerful, efficient and reliable turbine. It is compatible with all reactor types, and has a stable setup with reduced loads on the concrete foundation. It is easier to maintain thanks to its unique turbine architecture that has fewer components. That results in fewer inspections since its welded rotors have excellent resistance to stress corrosion cracking.

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Make a commitment to the future, with Alstom

RAIL SYSTEMS Alstom is committed to enhancing the intelligence, comfort and fluidity of sustainable mobility. We develop, supply and maintain integrated, safe rail systems for public authorities, operators and passengers.

POWER GENERATION Alstom and its partners are committed to rising to the challenges facing our society. We reduce the environmental footprint of our clients, optimize the flexibility and reliability of their plants, and lower the cost of power generation.

POWER GRID ENGINEERING Alstom builds power grids for now and the future. We interconnect major grids, ensure an intelligent balance between production and consumption, and improve the integration of renewable energy.

www.alstom.com

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alstom & asia: energy giants ARABELLE™ steam turbines now come with an additional benefit in the advanced 75” long Last Stage Blade (LSB), which is the latest evolution in LSB technology. It can reduce exhaust losses by 20% and deliver a typical 10 MW of extra output. The LSB 75 increases the adaptability of the low-pressure modules allowing further backpressure optimization, more accurate matching to site conditions and increased performance especially in cold climate locations.

CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) represents an essential part of a successful strategy to combat climate change (even more important in coaldominant countries) while providing a cost effective clean power solution to meet the growth in energy needs. Alstom focuses mainly on post-combustion and oxy-combustion technologies as these applications cover both new build power plants as well as the existing installed base.

After the successful operation of pilot and demonstration projects (4 units have completed their tests in the USA & Europe and 9 units are in operation or in commissioning), Alstom is now engaged in the full commercialization of the technology and is on track to deliver fully integrated CCS-enabled fossil-fuelled power plants well in time for the anticipated large-scale deployment of the technology into the 2020’s and beyond.

To this end, Alstom is active in supporting several large-scale CCS demonstration projects in development around the world, including interesting projects in China.

A number of other nations in Asia are expected to start developing carbon capture and storage projects.

Other coal-dependent countries like Malaysia and Vietnam are likely to follow suit.

THE 6 MW HALIADE-150 TURBINE Alstom are making great advances in the field of offshore wind. The new generation 6MW Haliade-150 offshore wind turbine was inaugurated on the 19th of March 2012. As the largest offshore

wind turbine in the world, capable of supplying the equivalent amount of electricity to meet the power needs of 5,000 households, it should cause a splash in the offshore wind market.

Wind power production in Asia, while small compared with thermal power, has been growing fast.

As better technology like the Haliade-150 emerges, the rate of growth will only get stronger. Demand for power in Asia will continue to climb in support of its strong economic growth, which along with increasing concern for the environment will drive the need for cleaner energy sources. As such, there is a huge opportunity for growth in this area for Alstom especially with their industry leading technology.

THE SMART GRID Developing a sophisticated smart grid is going to be a critical part of future Asian energy infrastructure, and Alstom are committed to assisting Asian nations in equipment delivery and consultation in the smart grid sector.

Alstom’s smart grid offer provides utilities worldwide with mission-critical energy management technologies, supporting global energy infrastructures. These solutions integrate protection and control devices distributed within the grid, and coordinate power electronics, new power transformer technologies and high voltage lines. These solutions enable grid operators, regulators, governments and other stakeholders in the energy chain to make the smart grid a reality.

Alstom is the world’s leading supplier of energy management and energy market systems. Its software for grid operations cover all systems used to monitor, control and trade energy over the grid.

This includes centralized solutions in the control room as well as distributed intelligence across the grid (microgrids). The cornerstone of Alstom Grid’s Network Management Solutions (NMS) technology is a product range known as e-terra global energy solutions, used by utilities in their control centres to manage generation, transmission, distribution and trading of electric energy. These systems are the “brains” behind the grid, and ultimately keep

the lights on for its customers. Between 2007-2011, Alstom Grid’s NMS team delivered a four-phase project to North China Grid including control room applications such as real-time grid visualization, decision support, generation scheduling, and wide area security to interface with NCG’s phasor measurement functions. And, more recently, the team has been working with China Southern Power Grid, China EPRI and Guangdong EPRI on various smart grid-related activities.

Alstom also delivers digital substation solutions including all intelligent systems (automated solutions and digital sensors) to protect, control and monitor electrical substations for utilities and electrointensive industries. Alstom’s latest DS Agile digital control system is at the heart of digital substation development, providing high reliability control of the equipment in electrical susbtations and industrial installations.

HIGH VOLTAGE DIRECT CURRENT Alstom is a pioneer in power electronics technology, such as hardware embedded with ultra-highspeed controls installed across the network. Its high performance technology for the control and conversion of direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) power are used for applications in longdistance High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) lines, power quality stabilization, and DC converters for the connection of specific energy resources such as offshore wind farms, renewable energy sources and battery storage.

In addition to its Line Commutated HVDC technology, Alstom offers Voltage Source Conversion (VSC) technology in the form of its HVDC MaxSineTM which is ideal for the integration of renewable energies, supporting weak AC networks, developing multi-terminal DC to AC interconnections, while also supporting the use of underground DC transmission cables.

ALSTOM AND THE FUTURE Financial market experts have suggested that the Asian power orders will dip by almost 60% in the next two years. However, Alstom believes that Asian economies will continue to grow and will still need power to drive this growth.

Nevertheless, should the market begin to slow, however, Alstom is prepared to combat it. Through its extensive Service offering, Alstom is able to offer older plants the needed maintenance and upgrade in order to continue to generate electricity efficiently.

Asia needs to move away from using expensive fuel oil and to produce cleaner electric energy, which will result in strong demand for new power generation equipment. With Alstom’s leading technology and product portfolio, they are well positioned to support the potential growth in Asia.

PI Magazine Asia has asked Alstom to expand on a number of the issues touched on here by Mr. Van Wersch, and over the next six months will be contributing some fascinating content. In our May – June edition, PI Magazine will have an in depth case study of the Tanjung Bin 4 supercritical unit. In later issues, we’ll also be looking at Alstom’s work in the wind industry and their carbon capture projects.

Subscribe to the magazine at www.pimagazine-asia. com to find out more.

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renewable overview

RENEWING INDIA’S POWER INDUSTRY A COMPREHENSIVE OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECTS AND BIG PLAYERS IN INDIA’S RENEWABLE ENERGY INDUSTRY

BY RACHAEL GARDNER - STEPHENS

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n a nation that needs energy fast, convincing governments and businesses to invest in renewable energy is a tall order. Luckily for mother earth, India is fully aware of its responsibility to protect their environmental assets for the future. Whilst this is frustrating for the fossil fuels market (see our article “How Do You Solve A Problem Like India” in this issue), such an attitude has provided a great many opportunities for investment in the renewable energy market.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is the branch of the Indian government that deals with new and renewable energy, introducing policies and schemes that help to develop and deploy renewable energy projects.

The role of renewable energy has assumed increasing significance recently, with the growing concern for India’s energy security in the wake of the two oil shocks of the 1970s. So far, India only has approximately 27 GW of renewable power. However, it is a strong growth sector, having added 12,437 MW from 2009 to 2013. The MNRE aims for India to have a total power capacity of 779 GW in 2035, and have formulated an energy roadmap aimed at adding 30 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2017.

This overview will take a look at the renewable energy sector, focusing on the major projects in the solar, wind, and biomass industries. It will also take a look at India’s gargantuan nuclear industry. Whilst not strictly a renewable energy source, nuclear is considered to be a clean and green technology, and is therefore worth including in this discussion of industries seeking to reduce India’s reliance on fossil fuels. solar power In India, solar power take the lead in terms of potential. In most parts of the country, clear and sunny weather is experienced 250 to 300 days a year, and the annual radiation varies from 1600 to 2200 kWh/m2.

The equivalent energy potential is about 6,000 million gigawatt hours (GWh) of energy per year.

The government certainly have faith India’s solar

potential. The MNRE aim to have 14.5 GW of solar capacity by 2018 and aim to have 33.4 GW of solar power nationwide by 2022. The MNRE has assigned 1172 MW of grid-connected solar power plants, with 369 MW already commissioned. The total number of plants include 131 photovoltaic plants, of which 65 comprise of locally made solar cells and modules.

Of all the initiatives set up by the MNRE, The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission ( JNNSM) is the most ambitious and successful. Launched in 2010 by the Prime Minister, the program set a target of deploying 20,000 MW of grid connected solar power by 2022 in order to reduce the cost of solar power generation. By encouraging solar power generation products and the manufacturing market, the JNNSM is seeking to make India a global leader in solar energy.

For these projects, the MNRE set favorable tariffs, with bids for photovoltaic tariffs under the first and second phases of the JNNSM averaging at Rs. 12.16/kWh and Rs. 8.77 respectively. Kicking off the second phase of the JNNSM, the government will tender 750 MW of capacity in the first week of May 2013. Draft legislation has also been drafted that would enable the solar industry to get direct grants covering as much as 40% of upfront construction costs, a model previously used to build roads, ports, railways and fossil-fuel power plants in India. tata power TATA Power has a strong portfolio of over 28 MW of solar generation capacity. The company has solar power projects ranging from 110 kW to 25 MW. With its additional wind capacity, TATA Power is India’s biggest renewable utility. The company plans to set up 300 MW of solar power capacity by 2017.

Tata Power have recently commissioned a 25 MW solar power project in Mathpur, Gujarat, which is now feeding power to the grid. The total investment in the plant was slated to be Rs. 360 crore. Spread over 100 acres of land, the Rs. 365 crore solar plant uses crystalline silicon PV technology.

Tata Power signed the power purchase pact for the plant with Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd. The company tied up the entire debt requirement through a consortium of domestic lenders, namely State Bank of India and Export Import Bank of India. The project financing comprises equity of Rs. 110 crore and rupee term loan of Rs. 255 crore. azure power With 55 MW capacity, Azure Power is one of India’s leading solar power operators. Azure Power is driving India’s economic development by delivering low cost clean energy to governments and commercial customers throughout India.

Azure Power have started constructing a 35 MW power plant at Nagaur in the northern state of Rajasthan under the first phase of the JNNSM. An expansion of Azure Power’s existing Nagaur PV facility, the complex will have a final capacity of 40MW. The plant is spread over 122 hectares of wasteland, and is expected to offset about 66,000 metric tons of CO2 per year. The Nagaur will use thin-film solar modules supplied by American PV giant, First Solar.

The original 5 MW plant supplies power to stateowned Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd. Azure Power received a $70 million loan from the US Export Import Bank to construct the additional plant. The Export Import Bank also provided $16 million for the 5MW plant in July 2011, and which was one of the first solar projects under the JNNSM to receive financial backing from an international financing institution. green infra solar energy limited Green Infra was established in 2008, and has become one of India’s most successful IPP’s. Focusing on renewable power generation with a diversified portfolio such as wind, solar, small hydro and biomass, Green Infra has a presence in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat. It currently has

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164 MW of operating assets.

The company, owned by IDFC Private Equity, has recently set up its first solar power project in Gujarat.

Green Infra have invested Rs. 130 crore into the 10 MW photovoltaic project in Rajkot. This solar plant is expected to generate 16 million units of energy annually, supplying electricity to over 4,000 homes and saving 12,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. welspun energy limited Welspun Energy is India’s leading solar developer, and aims to achieve grid parity within the next three years. A pipeline of 1.7 GW of renewable power projects will be developed over three years, with over 250 MW currently constructed. Welspun won three projects worth 50 MW in the first phase of

the JNNSM, and has completed all three. The 50 MW solar projects could reduce carbon emissions by 78,000 tonnes annually, and will generate 90 million kWh in a year. The projects are situated in Phalodi Tehsil of Jodhpur district in Rajasthan.

Welspun commissioned this utility-scale solar project in an astounding five months and well ahead of schedule. The company has also won a 130 MW solar PV project in Madhya Pradesh, which will be the largest solar project to be developed by any company in India. The project is set to be commissioned by end of 2013, and the company has secured finance of $161 million for the project.

Welspun are also developing a 200 MW solar plant in Rajasthan, and a 100 MW solar power plant in Gujarat.

relianCe Reliance Power primarily focuses on power generation through fossil fuels, but the company has seen the necessity of diversifying India’s energy mix, and are keen to invest in renewable projects. Additionally, as a state licensee, Reliance is obligated to purchase or produce renewable energy. Reliance Power has projects in the upstream and downstream sectors of the solar industry, and are also commissioning a number of solar power plants.

Reliance successfully commissioned a 40 MW solar photovoltaic project in Pokharan, Rajasthan in 2012. The Rs. 700 crore plant was commissioned in just four months, and the power generated will be used for Mumbai. The project will generate more than 70 million units of clean power. power insider march/april 2013 65

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renewable overview Reliance are also developing a 100 MW solar thermal project at the same location which is expected to be commissioned by May 2013. The plant will be built by Larsen and Troubo, and the PV cells will be provided by First Solar. The company has signed PPA with NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd for the 100 MW project for a tariff of Rs. 11.97 per unit. Meanwhile for the 40 MW plant, a PPA has been signed with Reliance Infrastructure In all, Reliance Power plans to invest a Rs. 8,000 crore to set up 500 MW of solar power projects in Rajasthan. This is the largest investment in the solar sector in India, to date. national thermal power Corporation (ntpC) NTPC is a state owned power producer and utility that is obligated to buy or produce a certain amount of renewable energy. As of March 2012, renewable energy accounted for 12.2% of NTPC’s installed capacity, and by 2032 the company aims to have a renewable generation capacity of 28%.

NTPC will set up its biggest solar power station of 50 MW in the electricity starved Madhya Pradesh.

The estimated cost of the project is around Rs. 700 crore, and will be situated in the Rajgarh district.

NTPC has also started the development of a 5 and 15 MW solar station in Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. All in all, NTPC are looking to develop 100 MW of solar power in the immediate future, with 20 MW coming online between 2013-2014.

The company recently commissioned a 10 MW of solar facilities, with two 5MW solar PV plants in Dadri and Port Blair. The first came online in Dadri in March, and is the first solar project of the public sector company to be commissioned anywhere in the country. Built at a cost of Rs. 48.59 crore over an area spread over 27 acres, the plant is expected to generate around 7.26 million units of power every year. NTPC will sell the power generated from this solar plant to GRIDCO, the Odisha-based public sector power purchasing company. mahindra solar one Mahindra Solar One is a joint venture between Mahindra Solar, a leading EPC, and Kiran Energy Solar Power, a start-up grid connected solar energy

producer. Together, the companies are developing two adjacent solar PV plants in Rajasthan. Under construction and set to be commissioned in early 2013, the 20 MW and 30 MW plants were won under the JNNSM. Mahindra Solar One is setting up over 100 MW of large grid-connected projects in the next two to three years. Mahindra Solar One was the first to achieve non-recourse rupee finance for the 5 MW JNNSM project and intends to create credible solutions for the growth of solar sector in India. wind In terms of installed capacity, India is ranked 5th in the world for wind power. Additionally, wind power accounts for about 70% of India’s renewable capacity at 18.4 GW. In 2011 the state run Centre for Wind Energy Technology assessed India’s wind power potential as 102 GW, which if fully developed, would provide about 8% of the projected electricity demand in 2022 and 5% in 2032.

The period between 2011-12 was a historic year for the Indian wind energy industry as it recorded a highest ever capacity addition of 3196 MW. Historically, the States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat have been the leaders in terms of total wind installations. These five states accounted for over 85% of the total installed capacity at the end of the last plan period. The States of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala are quickly catching up.

The MNRE has targeted a capacity addition of 27,300 MW of grid interactive wind power. The government, led by the MNRE, have laid out several policies to help encourage the growth and drive investment. Policy measures such as preferential tariff under PPA, Renewable Purchase Obligation, Renewable Energy Certificates, and Generation Based Incentive (GBI) have offered attractive opportunities for prospective investors.

The GBI was one of the most constructive policy contributions, but was repealed in April 2012. This caused dire consequences for the wind sector. From 2009-2011 annual installations more than doubled, but the withdrawal of the incentive contributed to a 50% drop in capacity additions over the past fiscal year. Because of this, the Indian government decided to reinstate the subsidy in February 2013, with INR8

billion allocated for the incentive in the 2013-2014 budget. Additionally, the government will also offer low interest loans for wind projects through the National Clean Energy Fund.

Perhaps as a result of the fluctuating state of funding for wind projects, India has emerged as a preferred ‘manufacturing hub’ for wind turbines, and large capacities have been set up by leading global manufacturers to meet the domestic demand as well as for export. Going forward, the market is expected to witness the larger contribution of large scale IPPs. As of October 2012, IPPs have a project pipeline of almost 16 GW, accounting for over a quarter of wind capacity installations between 2011 and 2012. tata power Tata Power has an installed capacity of 376 MW and plants spread across four states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Another 180 MW of wind projects are under construction in the states of Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Tata Power has also recently registered its 50.4MW wind project at Samana, Gujarat, under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). It will allow Tata Power to trade the Certified Emission Reductions it would earn from the renewable energy project.

The 50.4 MW wind plant at Samana was commissioned in May 2009 and uses 63 wind turbine generators of 800 KW capacity each. The Samana plant helps in reducing the carbon dioxide equivalent of 96,821 tons by producing clean energy equivalent to 104,970MWh per year. The Samana wind plant is Tata Power’s third CDM-registered project, along with the 50.4 MW wind project at Khandke, Maharashtra, registered in June 2010.

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welspun Welspun Energy aims to develop 1000 MW of wind power projects by 2016 in states like Karnataka, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh. Welspun also aim to build up a capacity of 300 MW in Rajasthan, and they have signed an MoU with the Government of Andhra Pradesh for 500 MW of wind capacity.

Altogether, Welspun has over 800 MW of wind power currently in development.

Welspun’s MoU with the New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh will entail an investment of Rs. 3,000 crore, and Welspun aim to complete the projects by 2014. As for projects in Karnataka, Welspun will invest Rs. 5,675 crore to develop two wind farms over the next five years. Welspun have signed agreements with the government of Karnataka to set up a 100 MW and 750 MW wind farm. The projects will be located at Bijapur, Chitradurga and Belgam. With a potential of 11,500 MW wind energy capacity, Karnataka holds the third most favorable location in India.

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oil india ltd Oil India Ltd., has commissioned a 54 MW wind project in Dangri, Rajasthan. The 54 MW project comprises of 27 wind turbines, and was effectively connected to the Rajasthan State Electricity Grid.

The project was completed at a cost of approximately Rs. 360 crore and within 142 days from the date of issuing of letter of award to the bidder.

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renewable overview development. Together they manufacture advanced Gearless WECs which reduce transmission loss, offers quick response to wind change and optimizes power generation. ReGen manufacturers 1.5 MW Class III Wind Turbines with variable speed and permanent magnet generators, and 5% to 7% more efficient gear boxes.

ReGen has installed over 462 wind turbines with an installed capacity of 693 MW and it expects to augment this capacity with the commissioning of the new plant in Rajasthan. ReGen have recently won a Rs. 468 crore order from Torrent Power for 75 MW of wind turbines, and a Rs. 278 crore order from Green Infra Limited for 40 MW in Rajasthan, which is a third repeat order from Green Infra.

wind power capacity is 67.6MW. Whilst renewable energy isn’t the most natural choice for an oil company, Oil India Ltd. have made a strategic choice to invest in both wind and solar energy to diversify its power base.

Continuum Wind Energy Continuum Wind Energy was founded in 2009 to develop wind farms in India and Asia. With an operating capacity of 44 MW, Continuum Wind Energy sells electricity under long term power sale agreements at feed-in-tariffs to distribution utilities and on negotiated tariffs to industrial consumers. In addition, Continuum Wind Energy is executing a 175 MW project, which is amongst the largest wind farms in India.

Located in the state of Maharashtra, the 175 MW Satara wind farm will have 40 turbines supplied by Vestas, and will start generating electricity by the end of the year.

Electricity generated from the new plant will be sold to the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Mytrah Mytrah Energy is India’s fastest growing renewable IPP. The company has a generation capacity of over 310 MW with a further 274 MW under construction. Mytrah has eleven wind farms spread across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. The assets under construction are expected to be delivered in stages by September 2013. The company is developing another 900 MW that are expected to be complete by 2015. Since 2010, Mytrah has invested Rs. 2,400 crore in wind farm projects, and is projected to invest a further Rs. 2000 crore for these new projects.

Mytrah has signed an MoU with the government of Andhra Pradesh, and plan to install 1,000 MW of wind farms by 2017. Late last year, Andhra Pradesh increased the tariff for wind farms to Rs. 4.70 per unit, making investment there very attractive.

Mytrah will have 300 MW in Andhra Pradesh

by December 2014 with an investment of Rs. 2,000 crore.

Mytrah have significant agreements with Suzlon and Gamesa for the supply of wind turbines, and this allows them to produce electricity at an average cost of 3.5 rupees per kWh. The company can then sell the electricity at about five rupees per KWh and consumers pay between six and nine rupees per KWh. This has

allowed Mytrah to stay in the game despite rising costs and competition in the wind market.

Wind Turbine Manufacturers With India an increased domestic demand and expansion of the in-house wind turbine manufacturing, the Indian wind industry is attracting many new manufacturers into the market. As of 2012, 16 existing manufacturers in India have a consolidated annual production capacity of over 9,500 MW. Indian manufacturers are engaging in the global market by taking advantage of lower manufacturing costs in India. Indian companies now export domestically manufactured components to Australia, brazil, Europe, and the USA. Some international companies with subsidiaries in India are sourcing over 80% of their components from Indian manufacturers.

Leading manufacturers like Suzlon, Vestas, Enercon, as well as newer entrants like Gamesa, Ge, Siemens, and WinWinD have set up production facilities in India. According to estimates by WISe, the annual wind turbine manufacturing capacity is likely to cross 10,000 MW during the FY 2012-2013 if all manufacturers go ahead with their plans.

ReGen Powertech ReGen has become the third largest wind energy company in India, just 4 years after commissioning their state of the art manufacturing facility in Andhra Pradesh. ReGen offers total turnkey solutions, from consultancy and manufacturing to maintenance.

The company has entered into a technical license agreement with Vensys Energy AG, a leading name in WEC design and

Gamesa Spanish Gamesa is a global wind turbine manufacturer with a strong presence in India.

Gamesa has a 500 MW capacity manufacturing unit in Chennai, and a manufacturing facility in Gujarat that builds components for its 2 MW turbines.

The Indian unit of the company has recently received an order valued at $2 billion from the local unit of Caparo Energy Ltd. to build 2,000 MW of wind power projects in India. The first phase of the project of about 150 MW was commissioned in 2012, and the final phase is expected to be completed by 2016.

Suzlon Suzlon Energy Ltd. is one of the major global leaders in the wind power industry. The company’s cumulative installed base is more than 7600 MW across 8 states in India. Suzlon has enjoyed a consistent market leadership for 14 consecutive years with nearly 43% cumulative market share.

Currently Suzlon has 10 manufacturing facilities in India with a manufacturing capacity of 3600 MW. The latest offering from Suzlon is the S9X series, and is specially designed to efficiently harness winds from low to moderate wind regimes, typically found in India. Since its launch in April 2011, the S9X turbine suite has exceeded 1GW in global orders, the majority of which have come from India.

A recent significant order for Suzlon has come from India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), who has ordered 49 wind turbines. ONGC will buy Suzlon’s S88 2.1 MW turbines to be set up in the north western state of Rajasthan. Suzlon will complete the project by March 2014. Previous deals with ONGC include a 51 MW plant in Gujarat.

General Electric (GE) On the outskirts of Pune, GE operates a state-ofthe-art wind turbine manufacturing and assembly plant. This facility builds 1.5 MW and 1.6 MW capacity wind turbines. GE’s turbines have key features designed specifically for conditions in India, such as a large rotor diameter that harnesses low wind speeds. Voltage ride-through technologies make possible integration with weak grids.

GE specializes in turbine only deals, and have won an order to supply at least 450 MW of turbines over three years to Hyderabad-based developer Greenko Group Plc. The $115m deal will help to build 500

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renewable overview MW of Indian wind farms. The companies have set up a venture dubbed Greenko Wind Project Private (GWPP) Limited to develop Greenko’s project pipeline. It will be funded by $65m from Greenko and $50m from GE. Biomass Biomass plays a vital role for India’s rural community, where biomass is still the major energy source [in India], providing 32% of all the primary energy use. The biomass power generation in India attracts investments of over Rs. 600 crores every year, generating more than 5000 million units of electricity. Biomass materials used for power generation include bagasse and rice husks.

Studies sponsored by the MNRE have estimated that surplus biomass availability is approximately 120 – 150 million metric tones per annum, which corresponds to a potential of about 18,000 MW. An additional 5000 MW could be generated through bagasse based cogeneration in the country’s 550 sugar mills. The MNRE provides Central Financial Assistance (CFA) in the form of capital subsidy and financial incentives to the biomass energy projects in India.

GreenInfra GreenInfra is currently developing an 8 MW rice straw fired power generation plant, located in Bihar.

Bihar is largely an agrarian state where availability of agriculture based biomass is expected to remain steady in the foreseeable future. The land for the project has been identified and the process of procurement has been initiated. Water and evacuation infrastructure is also available close to the plant location. The equipment supply agreements are presently being finalized and the construction began in 2012.

All-Green Energy All-Green Energy aims to roll out 50 MW of biomass plants within a two years. These plants will be a combination of greenfield projects (18 MW) supplemented through acquisitions of existing operational assets. All-Green is currently building its first Greenfield 6 MW biomass plant in Tamil Nadu, which is expected to be commissioned and fully operational in the first half of 2013. The project will be implemented by Perundurai Green Energy Pvt Ltd, a 100% owned subsidiary of All-Green Energy.

The plant is based on Biomass Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (BIGCC) technology developed by Indian Institute of Sciences. The technology supposedly has superior energy efficiency ensuring 30% lower consumption on biomass compared to conventional combustion technology.

The project is estimated to cost Rs. 57 crore, which will be funded through Rs. 35 crore debt and Rs. 22 crore equity capital. Additional 6 MW biomass plants are under development in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

nuclear power by 2050.

Because India is outside the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty due to its weapons program, it was for 34 years largely excluded from trade in nuclear plant or materials, which has hampered its development of civil nuclear energy until 2009. Now, foreign technology and fuel are expected to boost India’s nuclear power plans considerably. India’s 12th 5-year plan hopes to add 3.4 GW of nuclear power, and to add 63 GW by 2032.

Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) NPCIL is a state owned company responsible for the production and distribution of nuclear power. Private companies are not allowed to produce nuclear power, but the government has announced that it intends to amend the law to allow private companies to be involved in nuclear power generation, but without direct foreign investment. In anticipation of this, Reliance Power Ltd, GVK Power & Infrastructure Ltd and GMR Energy Ltd are reported to be in discussion with overseas nuclear vendors including Areva, GE-Hitachi, Westinghouse and Atomstroyexport.

However, the bulk of the current plans lie with NPCIL, who plan to expand their current 32,863 MW capacity in a big way. During the 12th 5-year plan, the company hope to start work on eight indigenous 700 MW Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR), two 500 MW Fast Breeder Reactors, one 300 MW Advanced Heavy Water Reactor and eight Light Water Reactors of 1000 MW or higher capacity with foreign technical cooperation. These nuclear power reactors are expected to be completed progressively in the XIII and XIV Plans, and are expected to cost $40 billion.

The eight 700 MW pressurized reactors are due on line by 2017 after 60 months construction from first concrete to criticality, and will cost is Rs. 12,000 crore each. One of these plants is very close to completion. Kudankulam Atomic Power Project in Tamil Nadu will have two 1000 MW units, the first of which is due for completion in May of 2013.

The plant will have a PHWR, supplied by Russia’s Atomstroyexport, and the turbines are made by Leningrad Metal Works.

NPCIL are also developing several ‘nuclear parks’, each with a capacity for up to eight new-generation reactors of 1,000 MW, six reactors of 1600 MW or simply 10,000 MW at a single location. By 2032, 4045 GW would be provided from these nuclear facilities: The Kudankulam plant will have three more pairs of the Russian reactors added after the first two,

bringing the total capacity of the facility to 9200 MW. Environmental approval has been given for the first four, and site work began in March 2013.

The Jaitapur plant in Maharashtra has been granted environmental approval and will start construction in 2013. NPCIL signed an agreement with Areva for the first two EPR reactors. The first two units will have Alstom turbine-generators, and the site will eventually host six units, providing 9600 MW. The first two units will come online between 2020 and 2021.

Mithi Virdi in Gujarat will host up to six Westinghouse AP1000 units. NPCIL says it has initiated pre-project activities here, with groundbreaking in 2012. Westinghouse signed an agreement with NPCIL in June 2012 to launch negotiations for an early works agreement which was expected in a few months. The first pair of units are due on line in 2019-20.

Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh will host six GE Hitachi ESBWR units. GE Hitachi said in June 2012 that it expects soon to complete an early works agreement with NPCIL to set terms for obtaining approval from the Government for the project.

Site preparation is under way, and a preliminary environmental assessment is being prepared.

Kumharia in Haryana is earmarked for four indigenous 700 MW PHWR units, and has AEC approval for a 2800 MW nuclear power plant. The inland northern state of Haryana is one of the country›s most industrialized and has a demand of 8900 MW, but currently generates less than 2000 MW and imports 4000 MW.

Conclusion Business is booming in the Indian renewable energy sector. Not only is there a healthy private market for both renewable power generation and manufacturing, but the government and public sector are committed to diversifying India’s power generation mix. Solar and wind will lead the way in India, with nuclear still too controversial to play a bigger role. The contribution from biomass should not be overlooked, and whilst not discussed in this overview, bio-fuels and geothermal energy are set to play a role in India’s energy story.

However, many of the existing and proposed projects for renewables are on a small scale, and whilst these kinds of alternative energy are renewable, they are finite and will not be able to provide enough energy for India’s colossal requirements. This why, whilst not entirely welcome, India has to embrace its burgeoning nuclear power program if they are serious about eventually moving away from fossil fuels.

Nuclear Whilst not technically a renewable energy, nuclear power is still an essentially green and clean technology. Since the goal of utilizing renewable energy is to wean power generation off of fossil fuels, nuclear power is worth mentioning in any discussion of green and renewable energy. India has a flourishing and largely indigenous nuclear power program, and expects to have 14,600 MW nuclear capacity online by 2020. India aims to supply 25% of electricity from 70 march/april 2013 power insider

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pertamina company focus

EXPANDING A GAS NETWORK FOR A THOUSAND ISLANDS PT. PERTAMINA GAS OPERATIONAL DIRECTOR, MR. WAHYUDI SATOTO

PIMA: Welcome Mr. Satoto to the March-April Issue of Pi Magazine Asia. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us. Can you tell us about the operations of Pertamina Gas in Asia? ws: Thank you for the chance to speak with your readers during this important time for the growth of the gas business in Asia. As you may know PT Pertamina Gas is a subsidiary of PT Pertamina, and

we are active in the midstream and downstream sectors of the Indonesian gas business. We are heavily involved in gas trading, transportation, processing along with other businesses related to natural gas and its byproducts.

We were established as a subsidiary in February 2007, to fulfil the requirements as part of the increase in the demand for gas in Indonesia, working towards

an environmentally friendly alternative to fuel oil.

Pertamina’s competence obtained from many years of managing the gas business provided the momentum for the establishment of a separate focused and professional company. Its resources and assets, together with its business network, are the pillars on which PT. Pertamina Gas is building the business in line with adding much value to the Indonesian gas industry.

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pertamina company focus PIMA: So the incorporation of Pertamina Gas has led to increased independence for your operations?

WS: PT. Pertamina Gas has received strong support from its parent company, PT. Pertamina and other affiliates. This mutual support between subsidiaries of PT. Pertamina has resulted in strong synergies within the oil & gas business so you could say that our operations are integrated, but we are also very aggressive in expansion and have partnered with some ambitious companies for new projects in gas processing and transportation. In terms of trading, we have reserves totalling 10.4 TCF as well as interests in managing gas transmission infrastructure in West Java, East Java, South Sumatra, Aceh and East Kalimantan. We are very focussed on becoming a world class energy company in the near future to assist with the development of the Indonesian economy and increase subsequent gas use for petrochemical, metal processing and power sectors.

PIMA: Can you give us a brief overview of your current assets?

WS: We are engaged in gas transportation activities through 43 pipelines transmission segments located in North Sumatra, South Sumatra, West Java, East Java and East Kalimantan. One of our key gas pipelines lies in East Kalimantan, running from Simenggaris to Bunyu. This gas pipeline project was triggered by the need to transport gas from Simenggaris to the Bunyu Methanol refinery in order to get the added value of gas transportation and gas trading. This has had a positive impact on Bunyu Island. This project was conducted through a joint venture PT. Perta-Kalimantan Gas, a consortium between Pertamina Gas and Medco Gas Indonesia. In addition to transportation we are

heavily involved in gas recovery and utilization with leading innovations such as the Pondok Tengah LPG plant, which recovers the associated gas emitted from our nearby Tambun and Pondok Tengah fields, this gas was previously flared and through a construction and operation contract from PT. Yudistira Energy, it has now been recognized for a Clean Development Mechanism certificate.

PIMA: What have been the main highlights as part of your exciting growth plans?

WS: It has been a most busy period for PT. Pertamina Gas in the past year, so there are many initiatives that could be described as highlights. With exciting progression in the PT. Perta-Samtan Gas joint venture, with Samtan Co. Ltd of South Korea, the development of our world class NGL plant in South Sumatra has been an excellent display of our capability and ambition. The NGL Extraction Plant and the NGL Fractionation Plant has a capacity of just over 250 MMSCFD and is followed by 90 km of pipeline infrastructure. This project adds real value to natural gas processing (LPG, Propane, and Condensate) in efforts to utilize idle assets. Furthermore, this project is being developed because the gas in Musi - Prabumulih mainline pipes still contains LPG that has economic value and by utilizing that gas, this project is expected to increase the domestic LPG supply whilst reducing the government imports. The Semarang – Gresik gas pipeline is another highlight for us that will open a lot of new opportunity for the natural gas transportation business in Java Island. Is it our biggest project to date that has been in development since we became PT. Pertamina Gas. One of the key opportunities with this project is to catch the gas field potential in Cepu Block and other gas fields along the pipeline

route to transport gas to customers in East Java and Central Java. We are hoping to spend Rs. 3 trillion in capital expenditure this year to help finance projects.

We have several challenges to work on as we want to boost our profits by 2015.

PIMA: What do you feel are the major hurdles to overcome in gas transportation network expansion and development?

WS: Since more than ten years ago, regulatory changes have resulted in separation between upstream and downstream business sectors. Downstream transmission and distribution of gas production, which had been a part of the upstream sector, is now implemented as an open access system so that existing infrastructure can also be used by the downstream sector. This initiative will help to smooth commercial operation and monitoring for gas transmission and distribution across both upstream and downstream sectors. When we discuss problems it is clearly recognised that a lack of critical pipeline transmission and distribution infrastructure is preventing the supply of gas from resource-rich areas in Kalimantan and Sulawesi to key demand centres in Java and Sumatra.

To overcome this major challenge, there is a real need for the development of more environmentally friendly practices of constructing pipelines. Knowledge is needed to provide the intellectual support for the infrastructure decisions necessary to sustain economic growth and environmental quality,

E

M

PIMA: From an operational standpoint, what are the major challenges that the Indonesian gas industry is facing?

WS: Some of the main issues facing the industry in terms of maintenance and operation are ageing

W f i s m c

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pertamina company focus pipelines and corrosion, ageing seals on compressor trains and premature compressor blade degradation and defects. Ageing pipelines, both upstream and downstream, may create a higher risk of exposure to the overall Indonesian pipeline system and Indonesia is having a lot of problems replacing ageing infrastructure pipelines. Pipeline leakage due to corrosion is a recognised problem, with an increase of incidents over recent times. The composition of gas which enters some of our pipelines, especially from West Java (Subang Field) has a high CO2 composition which increases the strain on pipelines. We are looking to replace a vast number of sections and work closer with Pertamina EP to reduce the CO2 level. Gas seal failure experienced on centrifugal compressor trains following contamination has also been a problem with unacceptable levels of high leakage. We have seen instances of liquid contamination when coalescer filters have not performed to the expected quality. Although natural gas in pipelines is considered ‘dry’ gas, it is not uncommon for a certain amount of water and hydrocarbons to condense out of the gas stream while in transit. Challenges with lubrication oil migration from compressor bearings and contamination from the process gas itself have also been key failure areas, when it comes into direct contact with the seal ring faces. At PT. Pertamina Gas we are looking to avoid unplanned shutdown of our compressor trains by mitigating gas seal contamination, but also want to invest further into effective pre-emptive maintenance to understand the life cycle along with real time condition and performance of key components associated with our assets. We have already made investment into a SCADA system, Pipeline Management and Gas Measurement Systems as the basis for gas pipeline operation control in addition to gas volume & billing calculations.

PIMA: How can we expect to see your role shaping up in the Indonesian gas industry in the short term future?

WS: As mentioned previously the major problems that we are faced with today in terms of natural gas is the location of the gas field supply in remote areas far from the demand, so the focus for us will be gas infrastructure, of which development is absolutely necessary. To do this we are designing a vast Trans-Java pipe project to meet the growing

demand in the centre of Indonesia’s commercial activities When finished this will be almost 682 kilometres from the western part of the island to the east, which will include a 255-kilometer pipe from Semarang to Cirebon, If all goes well, the construction will be completed by the end of 2015. We have also allocated capital for a gas pipe installation connecting the Arun oil and gas field in Aceh to a floating storage and regasification unit in Belawan, North Sumatra.

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