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RNI No.:MAHENG/2010/39548
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Issue No. 4
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October - November 2018
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Cover Focus
Solar Power- India Con t
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T Capariff ping
100 GW
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Looming Uncertainties Industry Insight
Biomass Drive in India
Market Review
Transmission Towers & Structures www.powerinsight.vision-media.co.in
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Power Insight
Special Feature
Thermal Power Need in India |
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EDITOR’S NOTE Policy confusion cast Shadow on India’s National Solar Mission Target
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ndia has envisaged adding 100GW of solar power capacity by 2022 and the initial pace of solar capacity addition in the country was quicker than expected. However, due to recent policy decisions there is an atmosphere of uncertainty in the sector that has not only slowed down the growth prospects but is also adversely affecting the investor sentiments. Imports from China and Malaysia account for 90% of supply for solar equipment’s in India thus under pressure from local manufacturers, the government levied safeguard duty on imports. This has resulted in increase in cost of setting up of solar power projects in India. Though project developers are entitled to recover additional costs emanating from the imposition of the import duty on equipment, but for that, they will need regulatory approval. Developers are already feeling the pinch due to regulatory delay in allowing pass-through of 5% Goods and Services Tax (GST) and fear they could face similar regulatory delays in recovery of additional costs on account of safeguard duty. On the other hand, nearly half of the solar power generation capacity, currently under implementation in India is facing viability risk because of the continuous fall in the value of the Rupee. The currency depreciation has made imported solar modules costlier. According to industry experts, if the Rupee remains weak and safeguard duty is also levied, project costs would dart up by as much as 20 per cent. In such a situation, viable tariff for future projects will have to be higher by 30 paise per unit. Meanwhile, discoms are dragging their feet over signing power purchase agreements (PPAs) with solar plants, sending alarm bells ringing in the policy corridors. R.K. Singh, minister for new and renewable energy (MNRE) has warned that installed capacities could get stranded if they fail to find buyers for electricity. He further stated that the achievement of renewable energy capacity of nearly 88,000 MW (71,300 MW established and 17,500 MW under construction) could only happen after constantly pursuing with states, but states have flatly refused to sign PPAs for renewable energy if rates are any higher. The prevailing factors like - safeguard duties, a lack of long-term buyers and inefficient cost structures are all casting a shadow on India’s National Solar Mission targets.....
Pankaj V Chauhan Editor - Power Insight
Email : pankaj@vision-media.co.in
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What’s Inside
content
Volume No. - 09 ; Issue No. -04 : October - November 2018
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Editor:
Pankaj V Chauhan
Cover Focus Solar Power - India
100 GW
Marketing & Sales: Navin SIngh
Con t
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marketing@vision-media.co.in
K. Pushpageetha
geetha@vision-media.co.in
Tar Cap iff ping
Creative Head:
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In stic
Poor policies are hurting India’s solar energy sector. In 2018 so far, there has been a dramatic decline in new capacity additions, and the trend is likely to continue because of increasing volatility in tender issuance, auctions, and capacity addition - -according to various reports....
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me
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GST
Prashant S. Kharat
Graphic Designer:
Looming Uncertainity
G. Sanjay
Production Head:
22 Industry Interaction
Shantanu Singh
Printed, Published & Owned by PANKAJ V CHAUHAN
Andrew Hines
Printed at
Co-Founder CleanMax Solar
MAGNA GRAPHICS (INDIA) LTD., 101, C & D GOVT. IND. ESTATE, KANDIVLI (WEST), MUMBAI 400 067
28 Getting Off Track
G-3A, JUNGLEE PEER DURGAH, K.A.GAFFARKHAN ROAD, WORLI, MUMBAI 400 018.
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Editor: PANKAJ V CHAUHAN RNI. NO. : MAHENG/2010/39548
October - November 2018
Chief Operating Officer Sova Solar India
Sunil Badesra Head BD Sungrow India
Need for Thermal Power
Power Insight
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Overseas Marketing TBEA
Honey Raza
Head Sales - India Ginlong (Ningbo)
India blessed with many large reservoirs is considering utilizing the surface of water bodies and plans to develop floating solar capacity of 10 GW till 2020-21.
A power crisis is looming large on India and planned capacity is not enough to meet peak hour demand till 2026-27 - the country needs to immediately start planning coal-based power plants to avert it, experts have cautioned. ... |
Deepak Chauhan
30 India to Develop Floating Solar
Special Feature
All right reserved while all efforts are made to ensure that the information published is correct, Power Insight holds no responsibility for any unlikely errors that might have occurred. The information on products & projects is being provided for the reference of the readers. However, readers are cautioned to make inquires & consult experts before taking any decision on purchase of equipment or investment. Power Insight holds no responsibility for any decision taken by readers on the basis of information provided herein. All disputes are subjected to Mumbai Jurisdiction only.
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Krishnendu Mukherjee
Recent developments are adversly affecting the solar power sector in India. Nearly half of under implementation solar projects at viability risks ...
Published from
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Damian Miller
Co-Founder and CEO ORB Energy
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Regulars
03 06 08 12 44 46
Editor’s Note Conventional Updates Renewables Updates T&D Sector Updates Communication Features Events Diary
What’s Inside
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Market Review
Transmission Towers
Market Overview & Outlook
India has emerged as the second-largest market after China for transmission towers, contributing to over 15% of the global market. The rising investments to establish a sustainable electrical network coupled with favourable regulatory reforms pertaining to grid integration of renewable systems will boost the market.
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Tower Design Trends
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Over the years, the design, installation and foundation of transmission towers have experienced substantial modifications on account of changing market dynamics – while the others due to evolving market challenges and hurdles...
Industry Insight
Biomass Power Indsutry
Biomass energy in the Indian context has set the national target to achieve 10 GW of installed biomass power by 2022. The MNRE has initiated a number of programmes for the promotion of efficient biomass conversion technologies to be used in various sectors of the economy....
Next Issue Editorial Attraction Sector Focus: Indsutry Insight Market Review Special Feature
Thermal Power Sector Solar Inverter Cables & Conductors Solar Power O&M
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Conventional News
NEWS UPDATES Thermal Power
Coal scarcity is causing generation loss to power utilities Coal scarcity is causing low production and loss of units across power utilities. Rising demand for electricity and fall in hydropower production has compounded power sector woes as generation companies are struggling to line up uninterrupted coal supply.
Hydro Power
Green Nod for NHPC’s 2,880 MW multi-purpose dam in Lower Dibang Valley
The coal shortages are being faced by almost all the widely dispersed state-level non-pithead plants. To
Upholding the environmental clearance given by ministry of environment forest and climate change three years ago, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has approved the construction of a 278-metre high concrete gravity dam in Lower Dibang Valley district of Arunachal Pradesh.
some extent the cause can also be attributed to the fundamental logistics problem. The situation is expected to continue for some time as coal shortage continues, leading to a dip in the generation. August to October period usually sees improvement in the output of coal from Coal India Ltd as compared to April to July period. But unprecedented demand for power has led to a shortage in the availability of domestic coal.
Thermal Power
Punjab and Haryana to meet 5pc of fuel demand from paddy stubble To check the pollution caused by burning of farm waste, the Centre and the state governments in Punjab and Haryana have agreed to make it mandatory for thermal power plants to meet 5 per cent of their fuel requirement from paddy stubble pellets.
The height of the 2,880 MW multi-purpose dam of National Hydroelectric Power Corporation will now be built with a reduced height of 10 metre from its originally planned height of 288 metre. The INR 25,658.50-crore (July 2016 price level) is flood moderation and power generation project and 115 families of five villages are likely to be displaced, while another 744 families of 39 villages are likely to be affected due to the acquisition of land required for the project.
The decision was taken in a high-level meeting chaired by Power Minister R K Singh and attended by chief secretaries of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. A pilot project in this regards has already been conducted by the Centre at NTPC’s Dadri plant where up to 7 per cent of fuel requirement was met by paddy pellets.
Thermal Power
New Notification on Environment Clearance for Thermal Power Plants The Union environment ministry has notified a new list of standard conditions - bringing an exclusive health assessment as an essential point to give environment clearance to new thermal power plants in India which will now have to comply with ‘human health and environment’ criteria as part of their mandatory environmental clearance procedures. The ministry’s official memorandum (OM) on the issue, pointed out that the condi-
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tion will not only apply to coal and lignite based TPPs, but also to waste to energy plants that pose a tremendous health burden on local populations and workers. The ministry has enlisted around 14 broad areas on several other new general conditions including activities under the Corporate Environmental Responsibilities (CER) where the companies will have to earmark fund for taking up various works for ecological preservation and restoration.
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Hydro Power
Japanese bank to fund West Bengal 1000 mw pumped storage project West Bengal’s power distribution company has executed a loan agreement to fund INR 5,000 crore for its proposed 1000 MW Turga pumped storage project. The total project cost has been estimated at INR 6922 crore. The pumped power storage project will come up in the state’s Purulia district at Ayodhya hills. Four reversible pump-turbine units of 250 MW each would be set up which has already been approved by the state cabinet. Earlier the state was looking at the possibility of setting up 1,200 MW of solar power units to power the 1000 mw pumped power storage plant. However, setting up solar facility is likely to cost another INR 5000 crore.
NEWS UPDATES Thermal Power
Chandrababu Naidu asks power firms to submit action plan for next 15 yrs On account of new industries coming up in the state the demand for power has been increasing in the state of Andhara Pradesh. Chief Minister of Andhara Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu has asked power utilities to submit a com-
It is expected that the grid consumption is likely to grow up to 200 million units per day and the maximum demand would be around 10,200MW during the next summer season. The total installed renewable energy capacity in the state is expected to go up to 6,950 megawatts.
NGT to fine thermal plants over fly ash
Thermal Power
Resurgent Power has acquired 75 percent stake in Jaiprakash Associates 1980 MW ( 3 X 660MW ) coal-based power plant in UP from the consortium of lenders led by SBI. This is the first stressed power plants proposed to be resolved by lenders outside insolvency court. According to the official statement released, “Renascent Power Ventures Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Resurgent Power Ventures Pte. Limited has signed a share purchase agreement (SPA) with a consortium of lenders led by State Bank of India (SBI) to acquire 75.01% stake in Prayagraj Power Generation Company Limited (PPGCL), which owns and operates a 1,980 MW supercritical power plant in the state of Uttar Pradesh. This transaction is the result of stressed asset resolution process initiated by the lenders through a competitive bidding process. The estimated deal value is about Rs 6000 crore. The SPA will be subject to customary approvals from regulatory authorities and the transaction is expected to be closed over the next few months.
BHEL commissions 120 Mw Pulichintala hydro power project in Telangana
Further, a heavy power demand is expected in view of construction of Amaravati, the rapid industrialization and economic development in AP.
Thermal Power
Resurgent Power acquires 75 per cent in Jaypee’s Prayagraj Power
Hydro Power
prehensive action plan by November 16, to meet the power demand in the state for the next 15 years.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed penalties of up to INR 5 crore on thermal power plants (TPP) that have not fully disposed of the fly ash they generated. As per NGT order published on Nov 26, the “environmental damages” for not meeting the 100% fly ash disposal criterion will have to be deposited with the Central Pollution Control Board in a month, failing which these power plants will have to pay interest of 12% per annum. This makes it legally binding for all TPPs to ensure complete disposal of or utilization of fly ash immediately.
Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), announced it has commissioned a 120 MW hydro power in Telangana with the completion of its fourth and final 30 MW generating unit. The scope of the order included the execution of Electro-Mechanical (E&M) package for the project comprising supply and supervision of erection and commissioning of four sets of Vertical Kaplan Turbines and Generators of 30 MW capacity each and the associated auxiliary equipment. The Pulichintala greenfield project on the river Krishna is located in Suryapet district of Telangana. The project has been set up for Telangana State Power Generation Corporation Limited.
Thermal Power
Water crisis could be major challenge to operate thermal plants Energy sector experts speaking at the Cleantech Week India event organised by the Swissnex India, an initiative of the Swiss Consulate - said that availability of water would soon turn out to be a major challenge everywhere, for the operation of both existing and upcoming thermal power units. They cautioned the Centre and the state about the impediments they could face in future, if they rely on thermal plants heavily for power generation. Deepak Krishnan, deputy director, World Resources Institute said that over 40% of the thermal plants are situated in waterstressed areas. Coming up with technologies to make thermal power plants consume less water is the biggest challenge.
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Renewable News
NEWS UPDATES Renewable Power
Renewable Power
India’s first wind-solar hybrid tender receives tepid response
India targeting renewable sources to meet the power demand of islands
The first 1.2GW wind-solar hybrid tender received bids for only 1.05GW of capacity from two participants. The tender, was originally launched in May for 2.5GW of capacity, but was downscaled to 1.2GW following transmission connectivity constraints.
India’s Union Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh, recently stated that the government is targeting on renewable energy sources to meet the power demand of Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands. While addressing delegates at “Know India Programme” - a flagship programme of Ministry of Ex-
The lack of interest appears to be the paucity of optimal sites for the project and the aggressively low ceiling tariff of INR 2.70/kWh. Though the original INR 2.60/kWh ceiling tariff for the tender had been revised upwards to in response to industry concerns about the viability of projects. However, the absence of major players suggests that there are doubts over the feasibility of the projects considering the aggressively low ceiling tariff.
ternal Affairs - the minister said, “India has chosen the path of sustainable growth and we want to leave a green planet for our future generations. That is why our focus is on renewable energy. We are aiming for 100 per cent renewable energy in Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep and India is ready to share expertise among other small island nations.”
Solar Power
Canadian Solar acquires remaining 51 per cent stake in Suzlon’s two solar power projects Canadian Solar has announced that it has acquired remaining 51 percent stake in two solar power projects from Suzlon Energy at a combined cash consideration of Rs 28.11 crore. Suzlon and Canadian Solar had entered into a joint venture in 2016 for these two solar power projects. At the time, Canadian Solar had picked up a 49% stake each in Amun and Avighna for a total of Rs 26.42 crore.
Only two parties — Adani Green Energy and SB Energy, bid for 600MW and 450MW capacity, respectively, by the deadline of November 2018. It remains to be seen how soon the authorities will move to the auction stage considering the response to the tender.
The two solar projects – Amun Solarfarms Limited and Avighna Solarfarms Limited - have a capacity of 15 megawatt each and are located in Telangana.
Renewable Power
EIB strengthens backing for India renewable sector
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The European Investment Bank (EIB) has confirmed to fund around EUR 600 million to support renewable initiatives in India. The EIB has joined hands with State Bank of India and YES Bank for this purpose. EIB also expects to work closely with Indian partners to support offshore wind projects.
support for wind energy projects across India. Under the agreement promoters of onshore wind projects will be able to benefit from long-term low cost financing under a dedicated EUR 600 million renewable energy financing programme already supporting large scale solar investment across India.
EIB and SBI have formally agreed to build on successful cooperation to finance renewable energy and provide new
EIB has also approved a new credit line with Yes Bank to accelerate private investment in wind and solar projects.
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Solar Power
Indian Solar Power exhibits sluggish growth trends in 2018 Indian Solar Power exhibits a sluggish growth trends in 2018. A dramatic decline in new capacity additions in India’s solar power space has been witnessed during current calendar year, so far.
According to renewable energy consultancy firm Bridge to India, the second quarter of the current calendar year saw the lowest level of capacity addition since early 2017. Moving forward, the country added 1,697 megawatts (MW) of solar power capacity, in the third quarter of calendar year 2018 - marginally better than the preceding quarter - but is still far below than first quarter of this year. The consultancy firm is of view that, uncertainty over import duty on solar panels has been one of the primary reasons for the growth slowdown.
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NEWS UPDATES Solar Power
Solar Power
Govt asks SECI to float 4,000 MW of solar tenders in 4 months
Uttar Pradesh’s 550 MW solar tender oversubscribed
According to media reports, the government has put its ambitious solar power capacity addition plan on a fast track, asking the state-run Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to bring tenders to install 4,000 megawatt (MW) solar power capacity in four months to February 2019.
According to media reports, eight bidders have submitted bids aggregating 795 MW in response to Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency (UPNEDA)’s 550 MW gridconnected solar photovoltaic (PV) tender.
The government has asked SECI to bring 1,000 MW tenders every month from November 2018 to February 2019, in order to expedite the process of capacity edition
amid criticism over unmet targets. Between the financial year 2019 and 2023, the solar power capacity is likely to go up to 56-58 GW as against 20 GW between the financial year 2014-2018, showed a report published in July by CRISIL.
Solar Power
Solar Power
Shapoorji Pallonji bags country’s first large-scale floating solar project
Odisha plans to invite bids for 550 Mw solar power After success at its inaugural solar power auctions in July, the Odisha government aims to invite tenders for 550 MW capacity in a month’s span
India’s first large-scale floating solar project is on its way with Shapoorji Pallonji winning the first block in Solar Energy Corporation of India’s auction of 150 MW of such projects on the Rihand Dam, along the Uttar Pradesh-Madhya Pradesh border. Shapoorji Pallonji won the reverse auction for 50 MW quoting a tariff of Rs 3.29 per unit, officials said. “This is the country’s first floating solar project at such a scale,” said a Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) official. The remaining 100 MW will also be shortly auctioned in blocks of 50 MW. “We had considered bringing out such a tender two years earlier, but our initial inquiries showed tariffs would have been in the range of Rs 7-8 per unit, and so we decided not to go ahead,” the official said. The Rihand floating projects will not have any power evacuation issues, as project can use the same transmission facilities as the hydropower station of the dam.
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Gridco, the state-owned bulk power buyer cum trader, will float tenders for 300 Mw capacity. Bids for the residual 250 Mw will be invited by another state-controlled entityGreen Energy Development Corporation Ltd (GEDCOL) for developing solar parks on cluster mode. At the maiden solar power auctions, Gridco had invited bids for 200 Mw capacity. The bids were oversubscribed by more than four times with Gridco receiving proposals for 845 Mw capacity.
The capacity, which had been tendered by UPNEDA in October 2018, has been oversubscribed by 245 MW. UPNEDA official stated that Adani has bid for the largest capacity of 250 MW (5*50 MW), EDF has bid for 140 MW (2*70 MW), Tata Power Solar has bid for 100 MW (2*50 MW), Avaada Power has bid for 100 MW, NTPC for 85 MW, Sukhbir Agro and Jakson each bid for 50 MW, and Vijay Printing Press bid for 20 MW. The financial bidding will be conducted as the UPNEDA wants to give a green signal to developers by December 12, 2018. As, there is a huge political will to push solar power in Uttar Pradesh as of now and the 200 MW solar park project is the next one on the cards with pre-bid meeting scheduled for November 28, 2018.
Wind Power
Wind energy capacity addition expected to increase After a weak FY18, the outlook for the wind sector has brightened in the ongoing fiscal, with capacity addition expected to increase 42% y-o-y to 2,500 MW in FY19. However, this would still be short of the 4,000-MW target set by the government for FY19, as part of the goal of building 60,000 MW wind capacity by 2022. The growth in capacity addition in FY19 would happen on the back of recent project awards. Projects of 10,000 MW capacity have been awarded by
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the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and NTPC, as well as state distribution utilities, between February, 2017 and September, 2018. Yet, the last couple of years have seen a loss of momentum in capacity addition — wind energy capacity addition had peaked at 5,500 MW in FY17 — especially since the government announced competitive bidding for projects, replacing the earlier feed-intariff (FiT) regime with a market-driven one.
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NEWS UPDATES Power Transmission
Adani Transmission receives LOI of an Intra State Transmission Project in Uttar Pradesh
T&D News
Power Transmission
T&D players struggling for survival in T&D sector A lot of pure transmission and distribution (T&D) players are increasingly finding it difficult to cope up with the drop and possible slowdown in transmission capex, particularly in the conventional energy sector. Capex by Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) has slowed and is expected to slow further due to lack of visibility in the power generation space. A lot of focus is shifting towards development of state transmission under state electricity boards (SEBs), the tendering of which is highly competitive, slow and a risk to cash flows. Though the increase in power T&D spend by state governments has come as a little respite at a time when large orders continue to be elusive and even central government orders that engineering companies had been banking on have been muted.
Adani Transmission Ltd (ATL), has received the LOI from PFC Consulting Limited (A wholly owned subsidiary of PFC Corporation Limited) to build, own, operate and maintain the transmission project in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The project “Obra-C Badaun Transmission Limited” has approximately 625 ckt kms of line at voltage levels
of 765 kV and 400 kV. This project is primarily being constructed to establish transmission system for evacuation of power from 2x660MW Obra-C thermal power project with associated transmission lines. This project has been awarded to ATL through tariff based competitive bidding process. With this win, the cumulative transmission network of ATL will reach around 13,548 ckt kms, out of which approximately 9,350 ckt kms are under operation and distribution network of ~ 3 Mn customer.
Power T&D
CM Thakur advocates for special strategies for transmission projects in hilly area Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur stated that a separate strategy is required to be chalked for developing cost-effective and reliable power transmission and distribution system for the hilly areas. While speaking at the national conference on ‘Challenges in Construction of Transmission Lines in the Hilly Region’ - he explained that laying transmission lines in the hilly areas is difficult as compared to plain areas and therefore special strategies needed to be chalked out for providing reliable, uninterrupted and cost effective power supply to the consumers.
Power T&D
GE T&D India: Facing the heat of slowdown in T&D sector GE T&D India with a market share of close to 60 percent in the high-grade equipment and high-voltage direct current (HVDC) category is battling the slowdown in transmission sector. With orders in the T&D market drying up considering the slow capex by PGCIL, the company now looking at export markets such as Nepal, Bangladesh and Africa. The company’s performance is badly hit, where annual order intake has dropped to Rs 3,900 crore in FY18 from Rs 4,300 crore in FY17. In H1 FY19, order inflows dipped 42 percent on a year-on-year basis. Moreover, revenue visibility (order book-to-sales) has dropped from 2.4 times in FY16 to 1.6 times in FY18 and about 1.4 times at present - according to media reports.
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Power Transmission
Leh region to see revival of 23GW solar and transmission projects The Centre is reviving mega solar power projects in Leh and Ladakh, with a plan to set up 23GW of grid-connected projects. The project would be awarded by the SECI, the nodal agency of the MNRE. The tenders would be issued by December 15. In the phase 1 of the current plan, the Centre is looking to put up 2.5GW projects in Kargil and 5GW projects in Leh for tenders. MNRE officials stated that the tender would aim at setting up a mega capacity project of 2.5GW at one location. Transmission is the biggest challenge in the region. Private developers would be invited to submit tenders for these. Their transmission network would be extended till Punjab, a distance of about 850 km.
INDIAN PARTNER OF
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NEWS UPDATES Power Transmission
World Bank sanctioned $310 Million loan to reform Jharkhand’s power transmission system the World Bank has come forward with a $310 million loan assistance for Jharkhand to turn around the face of its energy infrastructure. The loan assistance will help build new power transmission infrastructure, while introducing systems to improve the technical efficiency and commercial performance of the state power utilities. The World Bank project will also help bring
in modern technology solutions such as automated sub-stations, and network analysis and planning tools to provide reliable power supply and enhance customer satisfaction. It will help provide reliable, quality, and affordable 24×7 electricity to the citizens of Jharkhand. The loan has been sanctioned for the state under Jharkhand Power System Improvement Project. The project is part of the central government’s Power for All program launched in 2014. The agreement was signed between the World Bank, Jharkhand state government. and the government of India. Jharkhand.
Power Transmission
Adani Transmission to buy KEC International’s power transmission unit
Power T&D
The ADB sign $300 Million loan to support IIFCL in India The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India have signed a $300 million Loan Agreement to support lending by India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL). The $300 million ADB loan is expected to help catalyze the financial closing of $2.4 billion in investments. In addition, the attached technical assistance will support IIFCL capacity development and will focus on IIFCL’s financial management and social and environmental safeguards. Speaking on the occasion, Sameer Kumar Khare, Additional Secretary (Fund Bank and ADB), Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, who signed the loan agreement on behalf of Government of India said that the Project will enhance availability of long-term finance for PPP projects, improve operational capacity of IIFCL, and expand the portfolio of infrastructure financing instruments available to IIFCL. He further said that the loan is expected to compliment Government’s infrastructure building efforts.
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Adani Transmission has signed an agreement to buy entire stake in KEC International’s Rajasthan-based power transmission arm at an enterprise value of INR227.5 crore. “We would like to inform that the company has signed share purchase agreement with KEC International Ltd on 3 November 2018 for acquisition of its entire stake in KEC Bikaner Sikar Transmission Pvt. Ltd, (KBSTPL)” Adani Transmission said in a regulatory filing. KBSTPL project comprises 400 KV D/C Bikaner-Sikar Line of 344 circuit kilometres. The project was awarded to the company through competitive bidding prices and commissioned in December 2017.
Power Distribution
Discoms to pay solar developers one-time compensation for GST claims ICRA has estimated that distribution companies across India would have to pay solar power developers a one-time compensation totaling Rs 2,000 crore towards GST impact, as an outcome of the order passed by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) last month. CERC, in its order dated October 9, approved the claims under change in law and allowed the relief to solar projects that were not commissioned prior to July 1, 2017. The compensation could be recovered as a one-time payment on the GST front from the power off-takers. While the CERC has directed that the claims be paid within 60 days of issuance of the order, noting that any delays beyond this time line would attract late payment surcharge as provided in the power purchase agreements (PPAs). Industry analysts feel that it is a positive development for the solar industry, the timely release of compensation by the respective state-owned distribution utilities is crucial.
Power Distribution
Government helped transformed energy use in rural India A survey of over 9,000 rural households by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a think tank based in New Delhi, has found a strong improvement in Indian villages’ access to energy. The survey was conducted in six of the country’s major energy-deprived states: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal. Electricity through the national grid is now the main lighting source for 75% of India’s rural households. In 2015, when the last round of the survey was held, most of this population was burning kerosene oil for light. The increase in rural energy access shows, according to CEEW, at least a partial success of the Ujjwala and Saubhagya welfare schemes launched by prime minister Narendra Modi in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
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Special FEATURE
Thermal power needed to avert future power crisis
A power crisis is looming large on India and planned capacity is not enough to meet peak hour demand till 2026-27 - the country needs to immediately start planning coalbased power plants to avert it, experts have cautioned. . ....
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recent report by ICICI Securities stated that thermal power is needed in the country to avert the looming power crisis against the government’s belief that India’s current planned capacity is adequate to meet peak demand till 2026-27. We have seen a renewed push to renewables by the NDA government at the centre, since it came to power. Over the past four years, several measures have been undertaken to move India towards clean energy. However, the report poses a warning that this continued focus on renewable energy should not come at the cost of ignoring the crucial thermal energy sector.
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Special FEATURE Underlying Position: Thermal power still accounts for 60% of the Indian power generation capacity. However, the country’s power industry saw a massive paradigm change over the last few years with renewable energy, particularly solar energy dominating the discourse around new generation. Some analysts are predicting a 10 GW annual solar market from 2017 onward, which would make it the leading source for newly installed capacity. On the other hand, The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) stated that India would not need any new coal based generation capacity and that the existing thermal power capacity would be enough to meet peak hour demand and power all the homes till 2026-27. Now, this conclusion was based on a scenario because India experiencing slower demand growth in the range of 6% due to a slower recovery in industrial demand. In addition there have also been numerous initiatives launched to decrease the amount of energy consumption through energy efficiency measures such as the DELP plan, where LED lights are being given for a subsidized price to consumers across the country.
Rising Demand Energy experts feel that there are clear trends that peak demand in the country is growing much faster than the base demand. The country is experiencing this rise in demand on account of higher industrial activity, new domestic connections and states’ resolved to improve power availability situations. Thus, adding only renewable generation capacity will add to the distresses in tackling the unprecedented rise in demand. Industry experts have warned that India could face a power crisis in the near future if the government does not fast track planning new thermal power plants and power transmission corridors. The recent report by ICICI Securities said, “Record peak demand
increase in FY19, driven by increased domestic demand, new connections under Saubhagya and reduction in load shedding, appears structural.” The report further noted that, “Not factoring incremental peak demand from revival in industrial activity, our existing capacity and pipeline can at best meet projected peak demand till FY23, post which we will start running peak deficit.”
The Right Way According to the ICICI Securities report, the country reported peak power demand of 177 GW in September, an increase of 13 GW over FY18 peak demand — the highest year-on-year growth since 1993-94. The country’s peak power demand crossed the historic landmark of 180GW in October 2018. “We have come to the conclusion that Saubhagya’s impact has been and is expected to be much sharper on peak demand than base demand… Pickup
little towards meeting peak demand as their variable nature renders them unreliable, the report said. India’s installed capacity is 346 GW with ability to meet about 190 GW peak demands, to which 5-10 GW is likely to get added through plants under construction. To prepare for life beyond FY23, we need to ramp up capacity addition planning, or prepare to face another high price/supply deficit scenario,” it said.
Conclusion The report noted that adjusting installed capacity and pipeline with historical availability factor, foretells the end of current ‘peak surplus’ scenario by FY23. Industry experts feel that owing to its long gestation period, the country is already late in planning thermal capacity and the need of the hour is that the country should initiate a well thought of strategy at earnest, to start adding fresh thermal capacity to support
India’s installed capacity is 346 GW with ability to meet about 190 GW peak demand, to which 5-10 GW is likely to get added through plants under construction. The country reported peak power demand of 177 GW in September, an increase of 13 GW over FY18 peak demand - and is set to increase further. This is contrast to statistics of the country’s electricity authority that showed planned capacity is enough to meet peak hour demand till 2026-27...... in industrial demand will positively impact both base and peak demand, which will require generation and transmission capacity additions, something we do not believe is being currently built-in,” the report said. Thus, looking at the healthy energy demands there is need to start the planning for new thermal capacities at the earnest. Renewable plants contribute
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power production in order to avoid power shortages post 2022. However, as India moves forward for its next thermal power generation capacity addition plans, there is utmost need to make a conscious and planned effort to ensure that the growth is sustainable, not only economically but also from social and environmental standpoints. n
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Cover FOCUS Cover Focus
Solar Power
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Looming Uncertainty Safeguard duties, a lack of long-term PPAs and inefficient cost structures are all holding back India’s ambitious solar plan...
Poor policies are hurting India’s solar energy sector. In 2018 so far, there has been a dramatic decline in new capacity additions, and the trend is likely to continue because of increasing volatility in tender issuance, auctions, and capacity addition - -according to various industry reports..
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ndia, currently the world’s third-largest energy consumer after the US and China - still uses coal for over 55% of its energy mix. As part of its global climate change commitments, the country is running one of the world’s largest clean energy programmes with an aim of having 175 GW of clean energy capacity by 2022.
Currently, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are the leading states with majority of solar installations in the country. Karnataka is the top solar state in India
The solar power sector that is chasing a target of 100GW of this 175 GW by 2022 is set to carry much of the pressure of India’s renewables push in coming years. Thus it becomes important to understand, what is driving this market, and what challenges still need to be overcome before solar power can reach its massive potential in the country.
(as on 31 March)
Installed Solar PV in India (MW) 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000
Sector Overview
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No doubt that the solar power industry in India has seen a fast track development since the NDA Government has come into power in 2014. The country has been able to expand its solar-generation capacity over 9 times from 2,650 MW on 26 May 2014 to 24.5 GW as on 31 March 2018.
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Earlier, the UPA government targeted 20 GW of solar capacity by 2022. However, the NDA government in 2015 raised the solar capacity addition targets to 100 GW by 2022 - and supported the sector with proactive policies and measures which helped in achieving the 20GW target four years ahead of schedule. The country added 3 GW of solar capacity in 20152016, 5 GW in 2016-2017 and over 10 GW in 2017-2018 and currently stands at 26GW of installed solar capacity as of Sep 2018..
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exceeding 5,000 MW installed capacity by the end of financial year 2017-18. Meanwhile, not everything is rosy on the ground in India’s solar power segment. A few of recent policy decisions have generated clouds of uncertainty over the country’s solar power sector, causing a sharp decline in new solar capacity additions in 2018. According to consultancy firm Bridge to India (BTI), solar power capacity addition is slowing down in India. The consultancy reported that the country added only 1,900 Megawatt in the first six months of the current financial year (April-September 2018-19), down 44 per cent as compared to the solar capacity added in the same period last year. The consultancy BTI stated that including estimated utility scale capacity addition in the next two quarters, total installation in financial year 2018-19 is expected at only 4,100 MW, down a very significant 55 per cent over previous year and well short of MNRE’s 16,000 MW annual plan.
Looming Uncertainty Prevailing policy uncertainty related to safeguard duties, a lack of long-term buyers and inefficient cost structures are all holding back Government’s
the department of revenue’s notification. The imposition of safeguard duty has delayed financial closure for solar projects. Currently, investment of INR 15,000 to INR 20,000 crore is facing an uncertain future after the government levied safeguard duty on imports. In addition, the developers are not getting a certainty for a pass-through from the state governments, making it difficult for them to approach banks for project financing. As a result we are seeing an unenthusiastic participation from developers in solar tenders. Already, 1,750 megawatts of solar bids out of 6,750 megawatts issued in 2017-18 have been scrapped so far according to media reports. Though, the Ministry of Power in August asked the power regulator to allow pass-through of higher costs due to any change in levies. However, the central regulator is yet to ask state regulators to allow the pass through. Without states issuing directions to increase tariff, developers are facing a time-consuming and complex regulatory process to pass on additional costs under change in law in power purchase agreement.
Currency Depreciation: On the
other hand, when India imports over 90 per cent of the modules, the currency depreciation has made imported solar modules costlier and has increased the cost of setting up solar power projects. Modules account for 55-60 per cent of the total cost of setting up a solar project, which is typically INR 5 crore per MW.
Due to continuous fall in currency - solar power generation capacity worth INR 28,000 crore currently under implementation in India, is facing viability risk.... ambitious plan while having adverse effect on investor sentiments.
Safeguard Duties : Under pres-
sure from local manufacturers, the government levied safeguard duty on solar cells imported from China and Malaysia for two years on July 30. A duty of 25% has been imposed for imports in the first year starting July 30, and 20% and 15% for two subsequent six-month periods, respectively, as per
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According to analyst for every 10 per cent drop in the Rupee, the cost of setting up a solar power plant increases by INR 30 lakh per Mw, assuming other factors remain unchanged. Thus, on account of the continuous fall in the value of the Rupee, nearly half of the solar power generation capacity currently under implementation in India is facing viability risk.
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Tariff Ceiling: According to media reports, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, has asked the Solar Energy Corporation of India to cap the tariff at INR 2.5 and INR 2.68 a unit for developers using locally made and imported solar panels, respectively. The higher cap was to factor in the impact of safeguard duty. The ministry reportedly arrived at the limits after the recent 2,000-megawatt NTPC Ltd. got bids for Rs 2.59-2.60 a unit. A ceiling of Rs 2.68 a unit is unviable. Keeping in view factors like rupee depreciation, interest rates going up and safeguard duty, the impact on tariff is around 35-40 paise a unit. A tariff below Rs 2.95 a unit is unviable for a developer - echoed by industry stakeholers.
Way forward: Industry experts and analysts feel that the new duty and weak currency will have its toll on tariffs. As a result, a developer has to increase power tariff to set off the increase in cost, but utilities are not willing to buy power at a higher tariff. Besides, power minister has said that states are not purchasing solar power even at the lowest rates. Union Power Minister RK Singh has warned that the country’s installed renewable energy capacity might get stranded as states are not very keen on purchasing solar power even at the lowest rate of Rs 2.44 per unit. The minister also pointed out that SECI cannot afford to be in such a situation where it has to shell out Rs 40 lakh per year for every MW of renewable capacity without PPAs over 25 years. About 4 GW of recent solar bids, including 1 GW by Uttar Pradesh and 500 megawatts by Gujarat, have been scrapped due to high prices. The imposition of 25% safeguard duty on import of solar cells/modules is only making matters worse as the states perceive this as potential rise in prices. Analysts have warned that the goal of adding 100 GW from solar power by 2022 could go for a toss if necessary steps are not taken in time to correct the way things are going. n
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Industry Interaction Perspective of Indian solar industry captains comprising of Developers, EPC player, Module and Inverter manufacturer / supplier...
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Andrew Hines Co-Founder CleanMax Solar
Damian Miller Co-Founder and CEO ORB Energy
Krishnendu Mukherjee Chief Operating Officer Sova Solar India
Sunil Badesra Head Business Development Sungrow India
Deepak Chauhan Overseas Marketing Manager TBEA Xi’an Electric Tech. Co. Ltd
Honey Raza Head Sales - India Ginlong (Ningbo) Technologies
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Cover FOCUS India’s solar power capacity addition is slowing down on account of policy uncertainty. Power Insight in an email interaction with indsutry captains tried to understand the policy consequences on solar power sector’s growth while undertanding the challenges and future prospects. Excerpts... What is your outlook for the Indian solar market? What is your take on India achieving its 100 GW by 2022 solar target?
Andrew Hines : As India’s leading cor-
porate solar provider, our focus is on the adoption of solar in the corporate segment, in both onsite and open access or group captive power. What determines market growth by corporates is primarily a) economics and b) enabling regulations, such as open access policies and to a lesser extent net metering. In recent years, we have seen rapid growth in the corporate or commercial & industrial segment, and we have developed a 500 MWp portfolio for this segment. We expect growth to continue in the coming years, and the most important expectations from policymakers and regulators is to provide clear and consistent policies to enable private consumers to adopt renewable energy. There is a role for the central government and regulators, but most of these decisions ultimately are made by the states. One underappreciated reason for state governments to enact such regulations is to attract corporate investments to India and to individual states. Most corporates today are very serious about contracting large volumes of renewable energy to power their operations. An interesting recent example from Europe is that Scandinavian countries are competing aggressively to court data centres from the likes of Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook, and one key aspect of this is the availability of cheap, clean power for those facilities.
tory framework in place, and also has abundant solar and wind resources.
Damian Miller : We believe that rooftop solar has a key role to play in helping the country reach its target of 100GW of installed solar capacity by 2022. As a company we focus on serving residential and commercial rooftop solar users. Among the commercial and industrial community, we specifically target small to medium size businesses, which contribute about 40% to India’s industrial output. Commercial and industrial SME’s struggle with rising power tariffs, as well as dependence on expensive and polluting diesel generators. SME’s are getting comfortable with the idea that solar is now cheaper than grid electricity, and we are also providing them with a collateral free solar loan to be able to afford it.
Krishnendu Mukherjee : India, a tropical country, has the tremendous capacity of solar energy power generation and it is expected that within a few years India will be one of the world’s major solar power producers in near future. As per energy statistics India’s energy consumption has increased since 2000. It is expected from the trend that the consumption will be more than doubled by 2040. The capacity of our plant is 200 MW which we want to increase up to 1 GW by the year 2022. In this financial year, we have a target to reach 500 MW to contribute in the solar target taken by the Government of India.
Sunil Badesra : Solar has become one of
the least expensive options for new power generation so Indian Solar market has huge potential and sustained economic growth will keep on driving the Solar demand in future also.
Solar installations in India has taken 8-9 years to reach 27GW this year which is just 27% of the 100GW Target set by central government to be achieved by 2022 so big scope is there in future. We see India as a big potential market and export hub as well to target regions like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, USA, Middle East, etc. Considering this potential and growth in Indian market, SUNGROW aim is to support “Make in India” initiative of government and in the process to supply suitable products to make dream of 100GW Solar Power by 2022 a reality.
Deepak Chauhan : India has become the world’s largest market for new renewable energy auctions and the second-largest destination for attracting clean energy investments, according to the latest Clima-
When tech companies and manufacturers contemplate invesments in India and in Asia more broadly, this is an easy differentiator, given that India has the basic regula-
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Cover FOCUS tescope 2018 report by BloombergNEF. India being one of the biggest solar market globally provide an open sky of opportunities to Solar developers investing their money. TBEA has always focused on product quality and customer services being fruitfully awarded and have more than 2GW Inverters Supplied in India. Focusing on Indian Solar market requirements, TBEA has launched 1500V 3.75MW & 5MW inverters into its product basket having product range 1000V & 1500V inverters with capacity 500kW to 5MW (Central Inverter). As of July 2018, India has an installed solar capacity of 23.12 GW, according to MNRE. They also claim to have planned a detailed trajectory so as to meet the target of 100 GW by 2022. Projects of around 10 GW are under implementation and tenders for an additional 24.4 GW have been issued. The country is on track to comfortably achieve the target of 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022, as claimed by MNRE. Also, there is a drag of technology from 1000V to 1500V solutions and TBEA is well prepared with solutions, along with its R&D team dedicatedly working for Indian Solar Market requirements.
Honey Raza : Solar Market is evolving
through its day by day financial feasibility and also because of the increasing energy demand. It is estimated by 2040, India’s share shall be 11% in the global energy consumption. Meanwhile the emission reduction commitment shall intensify the adaptation of renewable energy as the clean energy source. Recent trends of hybrid plant where solar and wind are aggressively coming up and shall reduce the over all cost of the entire plant. This would be accomplished by utilizing the same BOM used for solar and wind plant. So the same infrastructure of plant can be utilized of solar in the day time and in night wind would add the units. We are also seeing the good response from the state electricity regulatory commissions which are pushing RPOs targets on the Discoms. Huge capacity solar parks and good rooftop schemes are mandating the reach of centralized and distributed solar in the balanced way. Grid integration of renewable energy sources shall be the key for moving forward. Technical expertise in sync with economic stability. Could you throw some light on the impact of imposed safeguard duty on your business as well as the overall solar segment? Can you think of an alternative solution which could help promote domestic manufacturing?
Andrew Hines : Since 50-60% of a project’s cost is the modules, any kind of duty will obviously have a direct impact on the tariffs, and therefore on the attractiveness of solar power overall.
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While government decides whether to tender for additional solar capacity, in the commercial and industrial segment, individual consumers decide whether to adopt solar power. Since cost is the most important driver for them, an increase in cost will inevitably lead to a slowdown of growth in this segment. Figuring out how to promote PV manufacturing in India is very challenging, given China’s dominance in this segment and the very large scale of manufacturing that is now required to be cost-competitive. Any country working towards this objective needs to take a long-term and holistic approach towards encouraging investment in PV manufacturing. A narrow or a short-term approach such as an import duty will not shift a manufacturer’s decision-making in any significant way.
Damian Miller : Indian solar market is
9-10 GWp solar power per year in FY 17-18 and the numbers in FY 18-19 (this year) could be hit due to the duty. We feel that the duty should be imposed on solar panels (modules) not manufactured in India instead of an additional tax on solar cells not manufactured in India. Right now, we are not geared to meet the huge demand for solar power with the indigenous production of solar cells. And focusing on manufacturing solar modules in India will create more jobs than focusing on protecting solar cells. Further over, the government can support the rooftop solar market and thereby domestic manufacturing, by ensuring that commercial and industrial customers do not face adverse charges or approval processes from their local distribution companies when they decide to invest in a rooftop solar system. Here the government can consider transfer of funds to incentivize distribution companies to encourage commercial and industrial customers to go for solar. Also, the government should continue the positive benefit of accelerated depreciation that commercial and industrial buyers receive when they invest in a rooftop solar system. This is extremely beneficial. Moreover, the government can consider how to extend a similar tax benefit to residential customers as well.
Krishnendu Mukherjee : Solar safeguard duty is the most highlighted topic for the Indian solar industry. In relation to import safeguard duty gives domestic producers a period of grace to become more competitive. As an Indian manufacturer Sova Solar is determined to do their business in India. We hope the decision of the Government and MNRE will be beneficial for the Indian Manufacturer.
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Cover FOCUS Sunil Badesra : Imposing of Safeguard duty on PV modules doesn’t have direct impact on Inverter suppliers however EPC/IPPs still expect to get this amount compensated through other components of Solar Projects and Inverter is one of those components. Since India has different policies as compared to China, it takes a lot to setup the manufacturing lines and testing facility here in India so to promote domestic manufacturing, policies need to be more simpler and friendly. Honey Raza : Yes we could see the
impact of safe guard in the recent project allocations. Market is getting stabilised by the time. The impact incurred by it is around 40 Paise which can easily be adjusted against the 2.56 INR per watt which would now be around 3 INR per watt. Sudden imposition of such measures creates some temporary decline but market conditions are becoming good. Safeguard could be replaced by incentivizing the manufacturing linked capital support or capacity building measures specific to the sector.
industrial SME’s overcome this hurdle, Orb offers in-house finance. With a 25% down payment, an SME can purchase a rooftop solar system from Orb. The remaining 75% is then paid over 3-4 years. Orb tries to align the tenor of the finance with the payback period to the SME. From a policy standpoint, as I have mentioned earlier, incentivizing power distribution companies to encourage commercial and industrial customers to go for solar and extending tax benefit to residential customers will do a world of good for the solar industry.
Krishnendu Mukherjee : In India, per capita land availability is very low. Due to this reason, land area for exclusive installation of the solar panels might have to compete with other necessities of the required land. Besides this, National Solar Mission is under constraints due to the inadequate financial support. It is also to be noted that consumer awareness is necessary about the technology, its economies and right usage. Sunil Badesra : The major challenge which Solar industry has faced in last couple of years is the uncertainty in the mind of developers and EPC’s due to tax, duty and BIS confusion which has impacted the Solar market.
What are some of the biggest challenges faced by the solar power segment in India? Also could you pin point to the policy and regulatory gaps that need urgent attention in the solar power segment?
Andrew Hines : In the rooftop segment,
there is room for improvement in the regulatory environment. In the C&I segment, net metering is a significant bottleneck, and removal of arbitrary technical constraints, project caps and other restrictions would certain fuel further growth. In terms of incentives, these could be more productively redirected to the residential and MSME segments, where they could help to develop those segments, which are practically nonexistant today but have huge potential. Within open access, the constraint today is more about enabling regulations rather than concessions. While concessions help to make solar or wind power more attractive to consumers, there are several states which don’t allow these projects to get approved at all. This is a significant impediment to renewable energy development in some states. It’s also an impediment to corporate investment in those states, as corporates are increasingly putting a high priority on affordable renewable energy supply for all of their facilities.
Damian Miller : The main challenge with solar for commercial and industrial SMEs is affordability: how to afford the up-front costs of solar. After all, buying solar is like buying more than 25 years of power upfront, on day one. To help commercial and
Many experts of this industry were not clear initially when GST was implemented that solar components will come in which category and now same is happening with Antidumping and Safeguard duty. If we talk of rooftop segment then still implementation of projects that included getting roof and providing subsidized solar products to end user is a big challenge. We are hoping for clearer policies and guidelines to encourage suppliers/ developers to see a strong potential in future as well.
Honey Raza : Currently the biggest issue
from the pv inverter supplier point of view is the BIS specification norms. We have been witnessing the extension of deadlines from March 2018 but yet only one lab i.e. CPRI Bangalore has been listed.
Conservatively if we consider 10 inverter supplier and each have minimum 20 models for testing. It would take at-least 4 weeks for single supplier to get the complete testing done. Single lab would do the same in the span of 35 - 40 weeks. We request the authorities to setup up the infrastructure of at least 4 – 5 labs for the better testing feasibility and reducing the testing charge. Single manufacturer is incurring around 5 – 6 crores INR of testing the entire range conducive for Indian solar market.
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Cover FOCUS What are your views on the current solar tariff levels under prevailing scenario of newly imposed safeguard duties, falling rupee value and uncertainty over GST? Do you feel the falling tariffs will have an impact on the quality of solar projects?
Andrew Hines : It’s hard to say whether aggressive bidding has an impact on quality. If we assume that bidders and investors are behaving rationally, then it shouldn’t, as they should be making the right cost/ quality tradeoff decisions regardless of the tariff. But in reality, poor economics in a project can drive people to cut corners. However, in a professional organization, there should be controls in place to prevent this from happening, as it is not in the best interest of the company to do so. Damian Miller : There is a strong pos-
sibility that the cost pressure can start impacting the quality of solar projects. Fortunately, Orb is different to a lot of other players in the rooftop solar space. We generally do not participate in tenders. We like to go direct to the customer and convince the customer to adopt a rooftop solar system on the merits of the technology, our service, and our ability to bring finance to the table. It means that we are not as affected by the competitive bidding you see in the tender markets in India. That said, even when selling directly B2B we see considerable price competition in the open market. As mentioned, we differentiate in several ways (in-house manufacturing, strong channel to reach customers, in-house finance, own in-house installation) that serves to give customers the confidence to work with us at a price that is right for them, and us as well.
Krishnendu Mukherjee : Directorate
General of Trade Remedies imposed solar safe guard duties on solar panels, imported from China and Malaysia, which is the cause of raising tariffs in future solar power projects. It might be the cause of slowing down India’s ambitious solar programme. Besides this, the devaluation of rupees has an impact investor’s return in the bidding of the solar power project. If a rupee increases in rupee-dollar exchange rates, it leads to a 2 paisa increase in per unit tariff. In last 4/5 months rupee depreciates 64-65 to 74-75 per USD but it was regaining its value at 71-72 USD after a certain time period. Therefore solar market faces 4 paisa per unit reduction in margin. This exchange rate contributes more than 50 % in the total cost of solar project. Due to this reduction of the value of the rupee, execution of the solar project becomes delayed.
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Sunil Badesra : Current Solar market is looking towards cost optimization in projects due to all these challenges for which Inverter is going to play a vital role. Now prices of solar components have reached at a level where further drop will kill the Solar market on longer run so only option left to make these low tariff projects viable is to choose the best technology which can optimize the overall project cost. In 2015, when Sungrow launched 2.5MW Containerized Inverter solution for the first time in India and proposed 5MW block for utility scale projects, market was not ready to accept but gradually when tariff started dropping there was a need of cost optimization and then this 5MW block solution provided that edge to developer and EPC’s and market accepted this solution. Now, recently SUNGROW has launched SG3125HV-1500V Containerized Inverter solution with which either 6.25MW or 12.5MW block can be designed using two or four units of 3.125MW and huge cost saving can be done with BOS components. Our focus has always been on quality of our products backed by excellent service support as a result we have received lots of appreciation certificates from our customers globally.
Honey Raza : Uncertainty is always bad
for any business and particularly for the projections and planning. Government has tried in past to resolve these issues very well and we hope to get the same aggressive approach in this case as well. Devaluation of currency is putting a marginal pressure but global economies are set to improve and will have a good impact on the rupee value as well. These shall last for the shortterm disruption in the market but would stabilise once we pass the Q3 successfully. How do you see the equipment price movements from here - over the next few years?
Damian Miller : The solar space has seen significant developments in the recent past, with the most significant being the decline in the cost of solar panels from a wholesale cost of $4 USD per watt in 2007 when Orb was first operational, to less than 25 cents per watt today. This drop in solar costs opened out new segments in the Indian solar industry, notably rooftop solar for commercial and industrial customers. It is very hard to predict where solar prices will go from here. Given many of the largest manufacturers now face significantly reduced profits (if not losses) at current prices, we think the bottom is closer. Krishnendu Mukherjee : We think that as there is a competitive market in India for solar module, therefore there is a possibility of falling of the price of the solar equip-
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Cover FOCUS ment. Though the demand of the solar electrification is increasing but as the competition among the companies remains in the market, it is expected that the price will be decreased over next few years.
Sunil Badesra : No doubt continu-
ous drop in tariff is putting a pressure on Developers and EPC’s however at the same time when Developers and EPCs select solar components they need to think that plant has to run and generate electricity for 25 years. Choosing a cheap Inverter is never a solution to execute any project with lower tariff but customers need to think of the solutions which can optimize their project cost by giving saving in overall project cost and make the project viable. Sungrow is one of the few companies who manufactures both central and string inverters. Innovation is our strength, we believe in adding value to our customers. We are working on constant development of our product and recently we have come up with a concept of virtual central inverter which has been success in US and Europe and also the biggest block of the solar Industry i.e. 12.5MW.
Honey Raza : Market is constantly having the pressure of improving the prices. Manufacturers are tackling this issue by coming up with disruptive technologies and continues optimization of BOM. Here in the next few years we expect to have 6% to 8% in the overall cost. High volumes shall be the biggest driving force for the price improvement. What kind of growth and capacity additions do you see in solar power sector in India, over the next few years?
Damian Miller : The last four years have
been particularly remarkable for us at Orb. Our sales of rooftop solar systems has grown more than 100% year on year for the last four years. Two years ago, we launched our own in-house financing facility to cater to Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) with a collateral free loan scheme. And in 2017 we also launched our own in-house production of solar panels - the plant has a capacity of 60MW and Orb expects to be at full capacity by the end of FY 18-19. When you look at the growth of the solar sector across India, we are particularly excited by the potential of rooftop solar. Rooftop solar has turned the corner and is now significantly cheaper than grid electricity for commercial and industrial users. It is so competitive that the payback is now just 3-4 years. This is an unheard-of return on investment for an unsubsidized solar power system (PV). It is no secret that commercial and industrial customers
struggle with rising power tariffs, as well as depend on expensive and polluting diesel generators for uninterrupted power supply. They are warming up to the fact that solar is now cheaper than the grid, and we are providing them with a collateralfree solar loan to be able to afford it.
Krishnendu Mukherjee : Solar power is attractive and it is abundant. It offers a solution to fossil fuel emission and global climate change. In India, National action plan on climate change make the India’s economic development energy efficient. Currently India ranked fifth in world with 26 GW installations in various locations in India till 30th September, 2018. Government of India’s initiative of 100 GW of solar energy is very prestigious target for us. As solar power helps in meeting the rural needs of the electrification, it is expected that in our country this solar power sector will grow indisputably.
Sunil Badesra : With around 10GW of Solar Installations in 2018, India is ready to become the second largest Solar market in the world. Indian Government is very ambitious in green energy targets and so are we in contributing to these targets. Though delay in clarity on policies in 2017 & 2018 has impacted the pace of Solar Projects however now it seems to be speedup again after all clarifications. In future we expect from Government to give clarity on other uncleared guidelines as well like BIS. China’s recently announced changes in Solar policies has brought significant impact to the Indian Solar Industry. A lot of Inverters/modules has been dumped by Tier-2 and Tier-3 Chinese suppliers at very cheap prices just to rotate their cash flows which is good on short run for Indian Industry however on longer it has a big risk considering service and operation challenges so customer need to be careful. Another most happening sector in renewables may be in energy storage market in India which is expected to witness robust growth in next few years’ time once the cost of batteries declines which is more likely going to happen through the electric vehicle route which is expecting another sheer volume growth soon.
Honey Raza : We expect the market would have the slack start in the Q1 2019 and expected to add around 2GW compared to previous year’s 4GW Q1 installation. Thereby market shall improve and expect to add 8GW next year. Solar Parks and floating solar shall be a driving force of such capacity addition.
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Cover FOCUS
T
he last few months have been a tough ride for solar power sector in India. The solar sector has been afflicted with numerous challenges on account of recent changes at policy levels as well as uncertainty on the economic front that has shaken the market confidence.
Cover Focus
Solar Power
Getting Off Track
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Power Insight
The Currency Factor The Indian has declined 13% against the US dollar in 2018. The currency has seen the worst fall of the century in second half of calendar year 2018 and was traded at over 74 against the U.S. dollar as on October 10, 2018. Since, most solar power developers in India have been sourcing solar modules and equipment from countries such as China and Malaysia, where they are cheaper. Now with rupee being Asia’s worst performing currency of the year has put these Indian developers in a difficult spot. The continuous fall in the rupee has affected nearly half of the solar power capacities under implementation are facing viability risk because it has made imported solar modules costlier and increased the cost of setting up solar plants. Ratings agency Crisil in its recent report said, “In what may further exacerbate India’s stressed power project situation, solar capacities totalling INR 28,000 crore face viability risks due to imported solar modules becoming costlier, with the continuous fall in the rupee.”
Recent policy implementation are adversly affecting the cost of solar power in India. Further the falling rupee has put nearly half of under implementation solar projects at viability risks . In addition government is planning to cap the tariffs.. All these factors are off tracking the sector from 100 GW targets by 2022.
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Even after a year, ambiguity still persists on GST (Goods and Services Tax) leading to an unpredictable environment. Currently, the industry is struggling with rising solar panel prices and flat power demand, while, on its part, the government hasn’t held auctions for solar projects. In addition, some of the recent policy implementations have dispensed a damaging blow to the industry rather than doing good.
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Policy Misfortunes While the Government’s policy remains favourable towards promoting the usage of renewables in the country - with the objective of cutting down on pollution and relying on sustainable sources of energies. However, some of the recent policy bloopers have posed the hurdles on the possibilities for developing viable solar projects anywhere in India - according to analysts and industry experts.
Safeguard Duty: India still relies on other nations for the utilization of solar power - as the country uses more than 90% of solar panels and modules that are imported.
Therefore, with a view to reinforce the concept of “Make in India” and considering the interests of the domestic manufacturers, Ministry of Finance imposed a safeguard duty on imports vide its notification dated July 30, 2018. In a move to accord protection to the domestic industry against a sudden surge in imports of solar cells whether or not assembled in modules or panels, however, this has
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Cover FOCUS
been counterproductive to the units set up in Special Economic Zones (SEZ), as these units were also made liable to pay safeguard duty. Around 60% to 70% of the domestic solar manufacturing capacity is situated in SEZs. Solar PV modules contribute approximately 60% to the overall cost of a project; the imposition of the duty will increase the overall cost of solar projects. Since, a developer that applies for a tender usually buy his panels after six months and being uncertain as to what kind of cost implications will be there - the industry is becoming a bit cautious. This has led to an unpredictable environment and made investors reluctant when it comes to bidding for projects. Two years (the duration of the safeguard duty) may be inadequate to create a robust domestic manufacturing base that will be able to compete with the global market. However, it will dampen capacity additions and raise tariffs in this period. Moreover, measures like safeguard duty work only
when there is a large existing domestic manufacturing base. Indian solar manufacturers only capture a minor portion of the manufacturing value chain, which includes polysilicon, wafer, cell and module. “There are incremental changes in technology at frequent intervals, which require capital and the knowhow to absorb. Backward integration and scale help in managing these factors.�
Capping the tariffs: India achieved a record low solar power tariff of INR 2.44 per unit in May 2017. Bidding at low tariffs was possible for the developers in the wake of fall in module prices. Now, MNRE is planning to cap India’s solar power tariffs at INR 2.5 and INR 2.68 per unit for developers using domestic and imported solar cells and modules, respectively - for all future solar bids. The reason understood is that government now wants the lowest possible prices to help indebted and lossmaking state-owned power distribution companies keep costs down. However, it has blown the whole point of reverse auctions mechanism. Reverse auctions is a mechanism where the market has to decide and settle on what
When government agencies start dictating what the tariff should be, without accepting any of the risks - - then the growth goes for the toss and that is what we are seeing in Indian Solar power sector. . ....
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it thinks is the best price. Industry experts feel that when government agencies start dictating what the tariff should be, without accepting any of the risks then the growth goes for the toss and that is what we are seeing in Indian Solar power sector. Today, the industry is unclear why the tariffs are being capped without taking into account market phenomena such as financing cost and the health of utilities. According to industry analysts, if the rupee remains weak and taking into account the safeguard duty, project costs would dart up by as much as 20%. In such a situation, viable tariff for future projects will have to be higher by 30 paise per unit.
Conclusion The Ministry of non- convection energy resources, government of India is trying to increases the power capacity and achieve the target of 100 GW by 2022. Though, the status of solar energy so far is satisfactory in India but some extra effort is required for betterment of solar source. At this stage of increasing transformation towards adoption of renewable sources of energies requires incentivizing policies encouraging solar energy network to be well-established in the country. . It is very important to support and subsidize the solar power till it can compete with the conventional sources. n
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Cover FOCUS
Cover Focus
Solar Power
India to Develop Floating PV Solar F India being blessed with many large reservoirs is considering utilizing the surface of water bodies to develop floating solar projects and plan to develop 10 GW of floating solar capacity in the country over the next three years till 2020-21.
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loating Solar PV Plant technology is an attractive alternative to the land based solar generation which help in utilizing the surface of water bodies like lakes, ponds, reservoirs, dams. Like China and a few of the Southeast Asian nations, India is also displaying interest in floating solar plants. The Government of India has recently announced its plan to develop 10 GW of floating solar capacity in the country over the next three years till 2020-21. The government’s advance in this direction should be seen as a positive step - since the country boasts of an ambitious renewable energy target of 175 GW by 2022 of which solar comprises 100 GW. There is no doubt that the potential for power generation from floating solar in India is huge, as the country is endowed with many large reservoirs. However, as the floating solar plant technology is in budding stage across globe – it becomes necessary to analyse at the prospects and challenges ahead.
The Journey Floating Solar PV Plant is an emerging installation technology trend which is still at a nascent stage www.powerinsight.vision-media.co.in
Cover FOCUS December 2017. Consequential to successful installation and commissioning of this plant, several Indian companies and discoms along with the central public sector undertaking dedicated to the solar energy sector have announced new pilots, projects and pipelines in this space.
The Advantage Land Consumption Advantages:
Procuring land for solar project poses a significant challenge to both the policy makers as well as the project developers, since a MW of solar project requires around 2 hectares of land. This is one of the biggest challenges in the way to 100GW solar targets - as having only 2.4% of the total geographical area; India supports 17% of the global population currently – that is continuously growing.
globally. During the period of 20082014, the technology was first put to trial by research agencies in Europe and the US with concept installations of a few kilowatts to check the viability for large scale adoption in the future. The first set of large scale floating solar PV installations only came up globally post 2014. In a short span of three years, the total global installed capacity grew from a mere 5 MW to 250 MW with a forecasted growth of up to 750 MW by end of 2018.
In India, the idea of floating solar plants was first suggested and put up by Tata Power way back in 2011, followed by a second pilot project in 2012 that was initiated on the banks of the Sabarmati River in the state of Gujarat. The success at these projects led to various other institutions and government bodies to consider the installation of floating solar plants atop water bodies. However, the country earnestly started looking at this technology after the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) commissioned a 10 kW floating solar plant on the Banasura Sagar reservoir in Wayanad in January 2016 - which was scaled up to 500 kW, in
According to one report, India could achieve around 700 GW of floating solar capacity installations using just one-third surface area of country’s major water resevoirs....
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One of the main advantages of floating PV plants is that they do not take up any land, except the limited surfaces necessary for electric cabinet and grid connections and their price is comparable with land based plants. Since, the overall surface area of India’s major water reservoirs is more than 40 million square km. The country could achieve installation of around 700 GW of floating solar capacity using just one-third of this area of around 14 million square km according to one study. Another study conducted by NB Institute of Rural Technology headed by Mr. Gon Chaudhuri reported that around 300 GW of solar power could be generated by tapping around 10-15% of water bodies in India, particularly in the most potential states of Bengal, Bihar, Kerala, Odisha and Assam. Thus, the technology provides a good way to avoid land consumption and can be considered as an alternate option to tackle land availability issues in quest to increasing renewable share in the country energy mix.
Curbing Evaporation: Evaporation
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Cover FOCUS losses in water bodies are increasing with rising summer temperatures. Several methods are being tried to check evaporation but have not been a much success. Floating PV systems
Corrosion & Stability: Floating PV
Systems also named as ‘Floatovoltaics’ are being place in water bodies, they are prone to corrosion. Module racking systems are to be designed for fixing on to pontoons / HDPE plastic floats. All metallic components have to be kept above water level with floats alone in contact with water to prevent corrosion. In addition, there are challenges related to instability that needs to be addressed. For this, the floats are to be fixed / secured properly to withstand high velocity winds and rapid flow of water during floods.
The lack of experience in floating PV in the Indian market means that the coming year will call for developing greater understanding of how these projects can be built efficiently.... on the water surface would be an effective method to reduce evaporation losses. It has been claimed by the some of suppliers of Floating PV systems, that water losses could be reduced to as much as 70 per cent. Meanwhile, the Water Resources Corporation in Korea in their study has found that Floating PV systems generate 11% more energy than an equivalent land based system. While, there are other studies which report even higher energy generation, closer to 20%. Further, there is saving on cost of acquiring water for module cleaning. In addition, as the modules in floating systems operate under much cooler environment it helps in reducing thermal losses responsible heat induced degradation, thus resulting in longer life span.
Key Challenges Regardless of being land neutral, the cost of the floating systems including anchoring, installation, maintenance and transmission renders the overall cost of the floating solar systems are much higher than the land based systems at this initial stage of development. Thus, along with its set of advantage the segment also faces several concerns and uncertainties that are to be addressed before commercially exploiting the potential in big way.
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Financial viability: According to industry experts, limited domestic availability of floats, however, is a big challenge. Non-availability of the primary float structure in India the industry has to depend on European or Chinese suppliers, which is not cost effective. Research and Industry professionals are confident that rising demand for floating PV systems and technical advancements would soon bring greater parity in cost with the land based systems. In the meantime, economies of scale can play a major part in reducing costs to make floating solar project costs per MW closer to or lower than ground-mounted projects. Besides these two major issues, floating PV technology with just a few years of evolution also needs to address several technical and supplementary issues like the long term impact of moist environment on modules, cables, safe transmission of power through the floats to the nearest feeder point, the environmental impact on the water body and the marine life etc.
Efforts & Developments: It’s only been in the last few months
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that this activity is coming into light and the government has floated eight floating solar power projects, whose capacities range from 2 MW to 1,000 MW. Moreover, these floating plants have tied up with Indian Government’s renewable energy plan. Many institutions and industries are already engaged in developing simpler design, stronger and longer lasting materials for floating structures. International funding agencies are also supporting the development of alternative PV technologies. World Bank is supporting, under its Clean Technology Fund, the development of projects totaling 10 MW of floating solar projects in India. The German Development Bank KfW is funding the development of two projects of total capacity 40 MW to demonstrate the technical feasibility of such projects, to assess the potential and the economic feasibility of setting up floating solar parks in India.
Way forward Floating solar with just a few years of evolution has inadequate long-term experience to address several technical issues anywhere in the world. The lack of experience in floating PV in the Indian market means that the coming year will call for developing greater understanding of how these projects can be built efficiently. However, India can move forward with learning from experiences of countries such as China, Japan and South Korea that have successfully implemented large-scale floating projects while providing sufficient support to the industry in the initial stages. The potential for power generation from floating solar in India is huge, as the country is endowed with many large reservoirs. Experts are optimistic feels that the trend of floating solar plants will become the norm soon as these systems offer hope for a country that aiming for an over four-fold increase in its solar capacity between 2018 and 2022.n
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Market REVIEW
Market Review
Transmission Towers
Transmission Towers
Market Overview & Outlook India has emerged as the second-largest market after China for transmission towers, contributing to over 15% of the global market. The rising investments to establish a sustainable electrical network coupled with favourable regulatory reforms pertaining to grid integration of renewable systems will boost the market.
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I
ndia being a developing nation, the demand for electricity to support the economic growth is on continuous rise. Thus there is need for substantial growth in transmission sector to support the growing load and to provide connectivity to generation projects – especially the renewables. Fortunately, due to increased focus on the segment in recent past years – the transmission sector has witnessed a significant growth in the country. Transmission towers are the integral part of a transmission network that work as the main supporting unit of an overhead transmission lines used to carry high voltage AC and DC systems and keeping it at a safe height above the ground. There is need for installation of new transmission and distribution infrastructure to keep pace with trends as well as replacement of ageing infrastructure. All these factors are expected to drive the growth of transmission tower market in the country.
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MARKET REVIEW Towers Market size in 2017 was over USD 30 Billion and is predicted to witness growth of over 1% by 2024. Various reports have projected the region to have the fastest growth and to lead the market in terms of market value. India has emerged as the secondlargest market after China for transmission towers, contributing to over 15% of the global market. The transmission tower market in the region is mainly driven by new investments to develop a new age grid owing to increasing urbanization and industrialization in the region. Inorganic growth manifestation coupled with extensive fund flow towards technology-based R&D to develop energy efficient, egronomic & economic units have been the key strategies integrated by the leading industry players.
Key Market Driver The rising investments to establish a sustainable electrical network coupled with favourable regulatory reforms pertaining to grid integration of renewable systems will add boost to the market size. Furthermore, the proposed concept of national grid mechanism along with the expansion of grids across international borders positively influences the business landscape.
Market Scenario Geographically, Asia-Pacific region currently dominates the global transmission tower market. Asia Pacific, accounted for a share of 36.9% in the global market for power transmission towers and cables in 2014 and the region is also expected to provide the most lucrative growth opportunities for the power transmission towers and cables market from 2015 to 2023, owing to rapidly expanding grid networks in response to the mounting electricity consumption in developing countries. By 2023, Asia Pacific is expected to account for a more than 43% share in the global market, emerging as the major determinant of the overall growth prospects and profits for the global market. According to one report, the global power Transmission Lines &
In addition, aging infrastructure and increasing rate of bulk power transmission across long distances will also play a key role in driving growth of the electricity transmission towers market.
22, of which estimated Rs 1.3 lakh crore has been allocated for intra-state transmission capacity. Apart from this government’s focus is on railway electrification and providing last mile connectivity and electrifying villages so that it can accomplish the set target will add to the market volume.
Increased Private Participation:
The government has introduced policy reforms to boost private participation in transmission sector. The Government of India is encouraging investments at the transmission and distribution level to boost access to reliable and continuous power supply through various schemes. A recent report by Crisil has rated the power transmission sector as the most attractive for infrastructure investment in India. The success of inter-state transmission system public-private partnership projects on the tariffbased competitive bidding model is testimony to the stoutness of the PPP model of the sector.
Renovation and Expansion:
Given the ever-increasing demand for electricity, India is undertaking the expansion and renovation of its transmission and distribution (T&D) networks, boosting demand for transmission
Inorganic growth manifestation coupled with extensive fund flow towards technology-based R&D to develop energy efficient, egronomic & economic units have been the key strategies integrated by the leading industry players....
Increased Focus on Transmission Network: The Gov-
ernment of India’s focus to reinforce the power T&D system opens up profuse opportunities for the towers market too. The government has foreseen an investment plan of Rs 2.6 lakh crore in transmission sector during the FY17-
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towers. Funding under the accelerated power development and reform program (APDRP) scheme is helping the state electricity boards (SEBs) reduce losses, and incentives are provided to SEBs based on their reduction in T&D losses. In addition, favourable regulatory reforms adjoining the expansion of smart grid networks will positively
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Market REVIEW
influence the business outlook. Paradigm shift toward IT implementation across the power industry will substantially enhance smart grid expansion, which in turn will augment the demand for effective transmission towers. The country is looking at expansion of extra (EHT) & ultra-high-tension (UHT) grid infrastructure to curb the accumulated line losses. This will drive the HVDC power transmission lines & towers market headway. Rapid commercial expansion and urbanization along with increasing industrialisation across India is boosting the expansion of utility aided grid infrastructure. Industry reports projects an estimated gain of over 1% by 2024 across 132 kV to 220 kV power transmission lines & towers market. Line Up gradation: Effective asynchronous interconnections, negligible short-circuit current, lower losses, and
enhanced controllability pose immense potential for existing networks in India. Furthermore, the proposed concept of national grid mechanism along with the expansion of grids across international borders will have positive influences.
Market Challenges It is not easy to commission critical transmission projects. In India, acquiring land and securing rights-of-way (ROW) for transmission projects is difficult. It is getting equally difficult to negotiate new corridors in metropolitan areas and densely populated cities. Thus, most of the transmission tower projects and EHV sub-stations projects in India are grossly delayed. The industry ascribes the cause of these delays to the necessity of extensive coordination and cooperation between various stakeholders like state owned companies, individual landowners and contractors.
The rising demand for electricity, need for replacement of ageing infrastructure and installation of new transmission and distribution infrastructure is expected to drive the growth of transmission tower market....
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This leads to stand-offs on critical issues like ROW (right of way), design, land acquisi-
tion, environmental approvals etc. and consequently to unpredictable time overruns.
Way forward The growth prospects for transmission sector are driven by greater emphasis on grid reliability, and spread of new urban and rural load centres arising from urbanisation and rural electrification. Further, the renewable sector would generate fresh potential for the transmission sector and will add to the demand of transmission towers in the coming years as these projects come up in the hinterland & the consumer is far from place of generation, the infrastructure that needs to be set up in terms of transmission lines & substations would be huge. The growth for transmission tower market is directly proportionate to the growth of transmission lines in the country. Thus, the rising demand for electricity, need for replacement of ageing infrastructure and installation of new transmission and distribution infrastructure is expected to drive the growth of transmission tower market. However, varying raw material prices, especially steel, and export and import restrictions may hinder the future potential of this market.. n
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MARKET REVIEW
Tower Design Trends
Over the years, the design, installation and foundation of transmission towers have experienced substantial modifications on account of changing market dynamics – while the others are due to evolving market hurdles.
E
lectricity transmission towers are units play a vital role in structurally supporting heavy high-voltage conductors carrying power between the generating end station and the local end substation.
Thus, electricity transmission towers have high tensile strength, and are designed as per the power rating of the conductor and supply frequency to withstand natural calamities and temperatures without losses. Over the years, the design, installation and foundation of transmission towers have experienced substantial modifications.
Design Trends The most extensively used towers by utilities in India are Lattice-type transmission towers due to their numerous benefits such as they are self-supporting, lightweight and easy to transport to inaccessible sites and most importantly being cost effective.
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Market REVIEW However, they require a large area and are not preferred in dense urban areas or narrow corridors on account of right-of-way (RoW) challenges. Meanwhile, increasing urbanisation necessitated a quick scale up transmission infrastructure to meet the rising demands. However, due to challenges faced on account limited space availability, there arise a need for towers that require minimum ROW sanctions, so as to speed up the installation. This encouraged tower manufacturers in India to offer towers with advanced design features so as to meet the industry requirements. Sleek towers with tubular sections also known as Monopoles came into trends during the recent past years to overcome the challenges of ROW in urban areas. Monopoles have less RoW requirements as they require one-sixteenth of the space needed by lattice-type towers. Each monopole tower requires only 33.26 square metres of land as compared to 245 square metres required for a conventional lattice-type tower. These towers consist of polygonal tubular sections - be in a single tubular form or an H-form - with a tubular cross-arm arrangement for fixing tension and suspension clamps on it. The main benefits of these towers are faster installation (as fewer components are required) and greater flexibility in design as compared to lattice towers. In addition, these towers have a substantial wind loading capacity and can withstand extreme weather conditions.
Installation Trends Meanwhile, in order to rapidly integrate the upcoming renewable energy that has a short gestation period. There is an urgent need to accelerate development of transmission infrastructure. So the utilities are looking for easy techniques for the installation of towers to quicken the development pace. These installation techniques can be broadly categorised into ground and aerial technologies. Some of the common tower installation techniques followed by utilities in India are the
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built-up method, the section method and the helicopter method. The built-up method is the most widely used method for tower installation where each tower member is installed in a sequence from top to bottom.
Increasing urbanisation necessitated a quick scale up of transmission infrastructure to meet the rising demands while, creating a need for towers that require minimum ROW sanctions to help industry meet requirements.....
In the section method, the major sections of the tower are assembled on the ground and are then erected as units, using a mobile crane or a gin pole. However, in inaccessible mountainous regions helicopters are being used for the erection of towers. Sterlite Grid has emerged as a pioneer in the use of aerial technologies.
Foundation Trends Since transmission towers are exposed to strong winds, hurricanes and other adverse weather conditions, a strong foundation is crucial for the stability of towers. In India most commonly used tower foundations by utilities are precast, grillage, reinforced cement concrete (RCC) spread, pile type and plain cement concrete depending upon the project wise requirements. Precast foundations are build off-site in a controlled casting environment and then transferred to the installation site. Since precast foundations are manufactured in factories in a controlled casting environment it offer a number of advantages, such as easy to control the mix, placement and curing. Most importantly, fluctuations in weather do not affect implementation or delay the project. Grillage foundations consist of several layers of beams (made of steel, precast concrete or timber), laid at right angles from each other. Grillage foundations are used to support structures that are normally designed to transfer and distribute heavy concentrated loads on soil having low bearing capacity. On the other hand, the RCC foundations are made of an RCC base slab or mat, which can be de-
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signed for a variety of soil conditions. Then there is PCC-type foundations that are consist of a plain concrete footing pad with a reinforced chimney and the tower’s stub is anchored to the bottom of the pad by rods and the chimney. Further, there is pile-type foundations that are used when the soil is weak or for special applications like River Crossing Towers.
Conclusion: The upcoming trends of monopoles will go a long way in overcoming the challenges of ROW and will support the fast development of transmission infrastructure in urban areas. On the other hand, the aerial installation techniques will help India in taking electricity lines to far flung mountain regions. A transmission tower plays an important role in transportation of electricity from the point of generation to end substation. Thus, it should be robust enough to withstand extreme weather conditions such as strong winds and other natural phenomena such as seismic events. Looking at the tower failures due to thunderstorms in northern India, in May 2018, there arise needs for reliable and sturdy towers with robust foundations. Depending upon the nature of soil, the type’s foundation of transmission towers should be selected and constructed accordingly. n
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Industry INSIGHT Indsutry Insight
Biomass Industry
Biomass related projects receive an investment of about $ 9251 million every year, leading to electricity generation of 5000 million units....
B
iomass is a carbon neutral fuel source for the generation of electricity. It has always been an important energy source for the country considering the benefits of not only providing the much needed relief from power shortages, but also generating employment in rural areas. About 32% of the total primary energy use in the country is derived from biomass and more than 70% of the country’s population depends upon it for their energy needs. Biomass related projects receive an investment of about $ 9251 million every year, leading to electricity generation of 5000 million units. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India has realized the potential and role of
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Picture for reference only - - image courtsey : MNRE
Indian Biomass Industry
biomass energy in the Indian context and has set the national target is to achieve 10 GW of installed biomass power by 2022. The MNRE has also initiated a number of programmes for the promotion of efficient biomass conversion technologies to be used in various sectors of the economy.
Industry Overview As per “Biomass Knowledge Portal” of MNRE India has over 5,940 MW biomass based power plants comprising 4,946 MW grid connected and 994 MW off-grid power plants as of 31 March 2016. Out of the total grid connected capacity, major share comes from bagasse cogeneration and around 115 MW is from waste to energy power plants. Whereas off-grid capacity comprises
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652 MW non bagasse cogeneration, mainly as captive power plants, about 18 MW biomass gasifier systems being used for meeting electricity needs in rural areas, and 164 MW equivalent biomass gasifier systems deployed for thermal applications in industries. Considering the present status of biomass based power generation and thermal applications, it is expected that only about 30-35 million tonnes of surplus biomass is being used annually for the existing and ongoing biomass projects. According to the Biomass Resource Atlas (2002-04) prepared by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, more than 300 districts in India have biomass potential between 10-100 MW. Some of the Indian states leading the pack in establishing biomass based
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INDUSTRY INSIGHT generation, India is likely to surpass the target of 10 GW by the end of the next fiscal year, way ahead of the target year of 2022. Moreover, the newly stipulated National Policy on Biofuels will provide a huge impetus to the growing bio-energy sector in India.
agriculture sector, defragmented land holdings, and vast number of small or marginal farmers. Another major challenge is the cost of biomass storage and transportation to power plants, which is consistently rising rapidly with time.
Barriers and Challenges
There is the need to evolve a robust organized biomass market through innovative business models, motivating rural entrepreneurs to take up the responsibility of supplying biomass to processing facilities. There is also the need to develop and exploit energy plantations to take up energy crops on marginal and degraded land, as a substitute for crop wastes.
Unlike solar and wind, biomass is relatively a much reliable source of renewable energy free of fluctuation and does not need storage as is the case with solar. But it is not the preferred renewable energy source till now, mainly due to the challenges involved in ensuring reliable biomass supply chain. This is because of the wide range in its physical properties and fluctuation in availability round the year depending on cropping patterns. Biomass from agriculture is available only for a short period after its harvesting, which can stretch only for 2-3 months in a year. So there is a need to have robust institutional and market mechanism for efficient procurement of the required quantity of biomass, within this stipulated short time, and safe storage till it is finally used.
power supply are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Chhattisgarh. Ironically, many states with agriculture based economy, despite good biomass power potential, have not properly been able to utilize the opportunity and figure low in biomass power achievements. Only Uttar Pradesh in north India has utilized large part of the biomass potential, which can be attributed to its sugarcane industry, with cogeneration power plants. The bio-power sector in India has picked up the pace in the last two years and even surpassed the annual targets set by the government. As of December 31, 2017, the grid-connected biomass power generation capacity in India stood at 8.4 GW, up from 4.95 GW as of March 31, 2016. Going by the current growth rate in biomass power
Some of the major barriers faced in faster realization of available biomass power potential for a variety of end use applications are (i) inadequate information on biomass availability, (ii) absence of organized formal biomass markets, (iii) problems associated with management of biomass collection, transportation, processing and storage; problems associated with setting up large size biomass plants, (iv) non-availability of cost effective sub megawatt systems for conversion of biomass to energy in a decentralized manner, and (v) lack of capability to generate bankable projects on account of financial and liquidity problems, etc. The major challenge in ensuring sustained biomass supply at reasonable prices are: Increasing competing usage of biomass resources, leading to higher opportunity costs; unorganized nature of biomass market, which is characterized by lack of mechanization in
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There is also wide variation in tariff being offered for biomass power plants in different states. Government policy can play a big role in enhancing the viability of biomass power plants and in supporting investment growth in the biomass power sector in states with high biomass power potential.
Outlook Looking at the way biomass energy is consumed currently in all sectors of the economy, whether in the industry or for grid power or for captive power, the demand will definitely increase. This increasing demand can be managed through effective strategies and new policies that take into account the uncertainties in demand and supply, cost related problems, availability of resources, as well as the environmental impacts of biomass. Further, the policies should be tailored to different applications and technologies. Utilization of biomass for power generation is the need of the hour as it solves two major challenges facing the country – power deficit and waste management. Setting up newer biomass plants would have longer gestation periods. In that regard, there is significant focus on co-firing of biomass in existing conventional thermal power plants. If the biomass sector is to succeed in any country, it is important that policies target a number of options, depending on the structure of a country’s power sector. n
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cOMMUNICATION FEATURE
12th Edition of Renewable Energy India Expo Reiterates Renewed Focus on Clean Energy Sector Keen Global and local participation, Foreign Investments & Technology Breakthroughs marked the show
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BM India successfully concluded the 12th edition of Renewable Energy India (REI) Expo, the three day (18th – 20th September 2018) show at the India Expo Center, Greater Noida. This year, the show focused on approaching renewables in a more holistic manner, with due consideration to wind, hydropower and biomass along with solar energy. The expo witnessed over 750+ exhibitors participation from 45 countries, with over 1,000 delegates and 225 speakers at the 37 conference sessions. The expo witnessed over 750+ exhibitors participation from 45 countries, with over 1,000 delegates and 225 speakers at the 37 conference sessions. The event witnessed new product showcases including charging stations, frameless glass to glass panels, solar inverters, solar kit solutions, bi-facial modules and testing lab facilities. The event also witnessed an increased presence of floating solar equipment makers. Business to Business (B2B) meetings were also facilitated in two separate zones to enable focused and well-directed match-making. REI 2018 also showcased bolstering Start-ups and SMEs with the launch of Sunrisers Pavilion, Session on Advantage Telangana, crucial industry dialogues in the form of CEO Roundtable, Financial Leadership Forum, Quality &
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Future Round Table, 5th Indo-German Energy Symposium, EU – India Clean Energy & Climate Days and International Matchmaking, and the 4th edition of Renewable Energy India Awards to recognize the Innovation & Excellence in the field of Renewable Energy. Commenting on the successful conclusion of the show, Mr. Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, UBM India said, “Over the years, REI has duly acquired a unique dynamism and influence as a comprehensive global platform for the RE domain addressing these challenges and aiding India’s green mission. This year was remarkable, with intense global participation in the form of renowned forums such as Business Beyond Borders, European Business Technology Center (EBTC), European Commission, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Indo-German Energy Forum (IGEF), European Union, and more. REI also witnessed a pre-bidding meet by the Govt. Of Madhya Pradesh for its project RESCO and a session – Advantage Telangana by the Govt. Of Telangana which made it one of the must-attend event for green energy professionals in India and across the globe.” UBM India, in June 2018 combined with Informa PLC to become a leading B2B information services group and the largest B2B Events organiser in the world. .n
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Communication Features Azure Power signs record 415 PPAs of 11.2 MW for rooftop in Madhya Pradesh
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zure Power signed a record 415 PPAs for a portion of the 11.2 MW rooftop solar power project won last month for Madhya Pradesh Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (MPUVNL) in which the company won ~90% of the total project sites allocated.
customers include large commercial real estate companies, a leading global chain of premium hotels, distribution companies in smart cities, warehouses, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, Indian Railways, a Delhi water utility company and various Government of India Ministries.
Azure Power is a leading independent solar power producer with a pan-Indian portfolio and provides low-cost and reliable solar power solutions to customers throughout the country. The company is equipped with its in-house engineering, procurement and construction expertise alongwith advanced in-house operations and maintenance capability.
For the PPA signing ceremony - various government colleges, engineering colleges, polytechnics, Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and universities gathered in Bhopal. Several dignitaries attended the ceremony including Vijendra Singh Sisodiya, Chairman, MP Urja Vikas Nigam; Manu Srivastava, Principal Secretary, New and Renewable Energy Department; Neeraj Mandloi, Principal Secretary, Higher Education Department; Dr Sanjay Goyal, MD, MP Madhya Kshetra Vidyut Vitaran Company; and Ajit Kumar, Commissioner, Higher Education Department.
Azure Roof Power offers superior rooftop solar power solutions for commercial, industrial, government, and institutional customers across India to lower their energy bill and meet their greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. The company has one of the largest rooftop portfolios in the country with over 200 MWs of high quality, operating and committed solar assets across 23 states. The company’s
Manu Srivastava, Principal Secretary, New and Renewable Energy Department, said “We are glad to partner with Azure Power in meeting the country’s renewable energy obligations. This step is an expression of commitment of the Madhya Pradesh Government towards renewable energy and its commitment to the improvement of educational institutions in the state.” Speaking on this occasion, Mr Vishal Jain, DGM, Azure Roof Power said “Our sincere gratitude to MPUVNL for all the cooperation and support extended. We are glad to contribute towards the expansion of solar by the Government of Madhya Pradesh.” n
ReNew Power join hands with CII to address stubble burning problem in Punjab
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eNew Power, India’s largest renewable energy IPP in terms of total energy generation capacity*, today announced that it has joined hands with Confederation of Indian Industries in its ‘Clean Air Better Life’ initiative to help farmers from the state of Punjab; with alternative stubble management techniques to address the complex problem of increasing levels of air pollution in Delhi NCR. Under this program, the company has committed to support 500 farmers from Ludhiana district and provide them access to climate smart technological solutions for farm residue management. These machines cut
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margin. With this intervention, the company expects 5000 acres of agricultural land in the district to go stubble burning free. Based on the output of the program, the model will be replicated to the rest of the state.
and collect stubble, sow fresh crop in the bare soil and deposit the stubble in the sown area as mulch, which helps the soil to retain its moisture and improve its fertility. Along with this, the company will also support awareness drives across the region to educate farming communities on the ill effects of burning farm stubbles which not only contributes to the rise in air pollution, but also has a negative on the farm and soil ecology, which in turn further deteriorates farmer’s
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Commenting on the partnership, Ms Vaishali Nigam Sinha, Chief Sustainability Officer, ReNew Power and Chair, CII Task Force on Making NCR Less Polluted, said, “At ReNew, social responsibility is inherent in the way we do our business. Though a lot needs to be done to curb air pollution, we sincerely believe that no problem is too big if all stakeholders come together and are determined to solve it. Through this initiative, we not only hope to create a transformational impact, but also create awareness for the need of a cleaner environment.” n
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Communication Features GE bags four contracts for installation of Wet FGD systems for NTPC
Suzlon maintains lead with a strong order backlog
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GE Power’s expertise in Wet FGD systems is proven with the recent completion of facilities and performance guarantee tests for Wet FGD at NTPC’s Vindhyachal Stage V / Unit 13 - 1 x 500 MW thermal power plant and awarded contract for Wet FGD for NTPC’s 2x800 MW Telangana thermal power project earlier this year. These six Wet FGDs together will treat more than 42 million cubic meters per hour of flue gas and will remove more than 540,000 tons of SO2 each year which will be converted into gypsum by-product for use in the construction industry.
Speaking on the technology front, he said that the company has installed and commissioned the first prototype of S120 – 140m - India’s tallest Wind Turbine Generator (WTG) with a Hybrid Concrete Tubular (HCT) Tower. Indian wind industry is on a growth trajectory with ~10 GW of capacity already auctioned and another 10 GW expected to be auctioned in FY19. Industry is set to grow from FY20 onwards as projects won earlier, will be executed and new bids are in the pipeline.
E Power has been awarded four orders by NTPC Limited to supply and install Wet FGD systems for a combined value of INR 1783 crore (USD 247 million). The four power plant projects are: Solapur Super Thermal Power Project 2x660 MW ; Tanda Super Thermal Power Project Stage II - 2x660 MW ; Feroze Gandhi Unchahar Thermal Power Project -1x500 MW, and Meja Thermal Power Project 2x660 MW, by Meja Urja Nigam Private Limited (a JV of NTPC & UPRVUNL).
The installation of these Wet FGDs will help NTPC meet the new emission standards issued by the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India in December 2015 making it mandatory for thermal power plants in India to install FGD technology to reduce SO2 emissions.n
uzlon Group, India’s largest renewable energy solutions provider, announced its Q2 FY19 results.
J P Chalasani, Group CEO, stated that the company has successfully completed India’s first SECI 1 wind power project of 250 MW for Sembcorp Energy India Limited (SEIL) at Chandragiri in Tamil Nadu. He added that Suzlon is the only EPC player to have completed the entire project as per the original timelines and 6 months ahead of SECI’s revised timelines. He saod that the company has also crossed a milestone, with installed capacity of over 12 GW in India and over 18 GW globally.
According to him, Suzlon is well positioned in the auction regime with orders of 1,413 MW from the already concluded auctions and are in discussion with customers for incremental orders for the untied capacity of ~3 GW in the recently concluded auctions. Owing to the project execution timeline of 18 months, these orders will be executed over FY19 and FY20. n
ReNew Power wins 3 MW floating solar PV project at Visakhapatnam
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eNew Power has won the tender for developing a 3 MW floating solar PV project in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. When commissioned, this project will be among the largest floating solar PV projects in India. In total, this project is estimated to generate around 4.2 million units of power annually, offsetting over 3960 tonnes of carbon emissions every year. ReNew won this project, after participating in a bidding process conducted by Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) for installation of a floating solar PV project at Meghadrigedda reservoir located in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. This project is being financed by GVMC through a grant received from Asian Development Bank (ADB) under their
Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund. Speaking on this occasion, Mr. Prabhat Kumar Mishra, Head - Distributed Solar & Offtake, ReNew Power, said “Floating solar is an emerging technology trend with huge potential and we are proud to be associated with this project at the Meghadrigedda reservoir, Visakhapatnam. We believe floating solar power plants can play a critical role in a country like India which has abundant water bodies. Factors like higher efficiency and lower installation time have also contributed to floating solar gaining momentum of late, with SECI inviting an EoI to
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generate 10 GW through this channel. As per industry estimates, if only 10% - 15% of India’s water resources are utilized for setting up floating solar plants, it could generate up to 300 GW of power. Our collaboration with GVMC in this initiative reflects ReNew’s commitment to deploy innovative solutions for generating clean energy to meet India’s growing needs.” n
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Events Diary
Save The Dates 11-13
Dec 2018
22-23
Bangalore International Exhibition Centre, New Bangalore, India
Jan 2019
Energy Storage India 2019 The Ashok, New Delhi, India
Intersolar India is part of the world’s leading exhibition series for the solar industry. Since being founded in 1991, Intersolar has become the most important industry platform for manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, service providers and partners of the solar industry. The event is celebrating its 10th Anniversary in 2018.
The India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) was launched in 2012 by Customized Energy Solutions to promote Energy Storage and Micro grid technologies and their applications in India. IESA also provides insights to technology developers and system integrators on the policy landscape and business opportunities in India.
For Details Visit : http://www.intersolar.in
For Details Visit : http://www.esiexpo.in
21-23
Feb 2019
2nd Renewable Energy Expo Chennai Trade Centre, Chennai, India
19-20
Apr 2018
RenewX India 2019 Hitex, Hydreabad , Hydreabad , India
Second Edition of RENEWABLE ENERGY EXPO will be held on 21st, 22nd & 23rd February 2019 at Chennai Trade Centre, Nandambakkam, Chennai. Organised by Renewable Energy Expo Team, a division of WT, the scope of exhibition is to stimulate the growth of renewable in the region through collaboration of technology and product sharing.
RenewX 2019 intends to accelerate the growth of the South Indian Renewable Energy and contribute to the country’s sustainable economic development. The Expo will provide an excellent platform for organizations to capitalize & penetrate into the lucrative south Indian renewable energy market and will bring together professionals from the renewable energy industry.
For Details Visit : http://www. renewableenergyexpo.biz
For Details Visit : http://www. renewx.in
22-24
May 2019
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Intersolar India 2018
Solar India 2019
05-07
Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India
June 2019
World Environment Expo 2019 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India
Realising the immense potential and emerging opportunities existing in solar industry. Exhibitions India Group is organising the 4th edition of Solar India 2019 expo which will be held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from 22-24 May 2019. The theme of the exhibition and conference is “Solar Energy for a Sustainable Future.”
WORLD ENVIRONMENT EXPO (WEE 2019) is a b2b business platform for the national and international environment technology and equipment manufacturers to find out the new business opportunities worldwide. This event is a great opportunity to network with the Industry. WEE 2019 is a premium trade exhibition for products and services dedicated to the environment and its protection.
For Details Visit : http://www. solarindiaexpo.com
For Details Visit : http://www.worldenvironment.in
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