Cement Energy and Environment

.. INDIA'S RE POTENTIAL According to a recent World Bank report, India has the potential to generate 68,000 MW of power at less than Rs.6 per unit from renewable energy sources. It Points out that Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand account for 65 per cent of India's small hydro power resources. It also notes that the wind potential in Orissa and the biomass potential in Madhya Pradesh are largely undeveloped. Courlesy: Renewable Watch, March 2011, PB. Wind CENTRE WANTS TO WITHDRAW SOPS FOR WIND ENERGY SECTOR; OFFERS AN INCENTIVE TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE Wind energy has been the poster child of India's renewable energy programme. Data released by the government shows the staggering pace at which wind farms have been added across the country. But most of them deliver only a fraction of their generation potential, according to the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). This is due to use of obsolete equipment. The electricity regulators now want to discipline this errant child-no tax holidays, and payment subject to performance. But this is likely to happen if the industry agrees to the new direct tax code, which withdraws sops to the industry. Data maintained by MNRE shows that between 1990 and 2011 about 13,000 MW wind power capacity was installed in India, propelling it to fifth rank among the wind power producing countries. Wind energy forms a little less than 10 per cent of the total installed capacity of the country, but contributes less than three per cent to the country's power generation, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) data shows. "At best, Indian wind farms have managed a capacity utilisation of 30 per cent," says an MNRE official. According to MNRE data, average capacity utilisation in 2009-1 0 was a low 18 per cent (see graph). In 2008, the Prime Minister announced the national action plan on climate change which mandates that minimum five per cent energy be procured from renewables by March 201 0; this was to increase one per cent every subsequent year. Sensing these targets could not be met in existing conditions, a new policy was announced in December 2009 to improve the sector's performance. MNRE introduced a generation based incentive (GBI) scheme. Under it, Rs 0.50 is paid for every unit of electricity fed from a windmill to the grid over and above the feed-in-tariff a utility pays. The GBI scheme was in addition to the government's promotional scheme, Accelerated Depreciation (AD), launched in the 1990s. It allowed, companies investing in wind farms write off about 80 per cent of invested capital in the first year (see 'How tax sop works'). This led to setting up of a large number of wind farms (see 'Fanning an alternative', Down To Earth, August 15, 2008). "A lot of these farms are in a shambles after the tax benefit was availed. In some cases, the promoters have neglected them completely," says a financier. The AD scheme did not penalise power producers for inefficiency. Consequently, some of the most favourable sites in the country are under– utilised. On the other hand, the few investors who opted for GBI recently increased generation considerably. "Since GBI, there has been steady increase in the height of wind turbine towers and the size of the turbines, which has increased generation substantially," says S K Dey, manager of the government-run Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA). But even with incentives, improvement has been sluggish-of the 13,000 MW installed capacity, only 400 MW have been installed under GBI scheme. "No one wants to incur the cost on technology upgradation," says G Subramanian of the Indian Wind Energy Association. Over 90 per cent of the power plants are installed at the country's most windy sites under the AD scheme, but the technology is outdated. "In the goldmines of wind, we have outdated technology installed for tax benefits," says an MNRE official. Technological upgradation of re-powering of these sites 27