CEE April-June 2012

The project sizes in India are very small as compared to global plants. While India's biggest plant, the Timarpur-Okhla WtE project in Delhi with 21 MW capacity, is under construction , China is in the process of setting up the world's largest plant with 40 MW capacity. The total capacity of municipal WtE projects increased steadily from 2001 to 2005, dipped in 2006 and picked up again in 2007. Thereafter, three major plants based on MSW that were commissioned in 2003-04 were shut down in the last one and a half years. These were a 6.6 MW plant at Hyderabad, operated by Selco International; a 6 MW plant at Vijayawada, operated by Shriram Energy Systems Limited; and a 5 MW plant at Lucknow, operated by Asia Bioenergy (Indi a) Limited. This was mostly due to technical problems and issues related to the supply and quality of waste available. Only a few cities have planned WtE projects using MSW in the future. These include three projects in Delhi, one in Karnataka (Bengaluru), two in Andhra Pradesh and one in Orissa (Bhubaneswar). Issues and challenges The WtE concept has not been paid enough attention by cities in India. At present, ULBs spend a minuscule amount on the treatment and disposal of waste; the majority of the waste is dumped in open grounds. In fact, of the Rs 500-Rs 1,500 per tonne estimated to be spent by ULBs on waste collection, transportation, treatment and disposal, 60 - 70 per cent is spent on collection, 20- 30 per cent on transportation and the remaining on treatment and disposal. This is primarily because Indian law allows dumping, which is the cheapest option, with the exception of a few metros where land costs are high. In such cases, the waste is dumped on the city's outskirts or used as fillers at construction sites. WtE has been successful at places where dumping is not allowed. Only sanitary landfills for wastes that cannot be used for WtE should be legally permitted. However, these are expensive to create and maintain. Past experiences of major cities, such as Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, have not been very encouraging for the waste sector. A waste incinerator using Danish technology was installed in De!hi in 1984 as pilot project; however, it miscalculated the moisture content of the waste. As the incoming refuse did not match with the plant design of 1,460 kcal per kg net calorific value, the technology worked only when diesel was added to the waste. The incinerator was designed to produce 3.75 MW of electricity at a cost of Rs. 0.41 billion. However, according to reports, it was closed down after 21 days of operation and the Danish suppliers were sued for failing to implement the agreed contract. The failure was also due to the solid waste management systems used at the time. Similarly, a WtE plant for integrated waste management, a prototype fuel pelletisation plant, was commissioned in Mumbai and was to be transferred to a private operator post the demonstration period. However, the plant was shut down soon after demonstration. The two refuse derived fuel demonstration plants in Andhra Pradesh, built near Hyderabad and Vijayawada, with a capacity of 6 MW each , failed to operate for long. While the Hyderabad plant was shut down due to mechanical problems, the Vijayawada plant became non-operational due to problems with waste supply. Lucknow's 5 MW WtE plant, which was based on biomethanation technology and involved an investment of Rs 840 million, received a Rs 250 million subsidy from the union government. It was generating only 0.3 MW to 0.5 MW of electricity when it was commissioned and was shut down in 2005. The prime , eason behind this was an ineffective waste segregation system, which led to poor quality of MSW being delivered to the plant. The waste contained only 12 -15 per cent biodegradables. The problems were exacerbated by the ULB's poor accountability for the waste supplied. Another key issue relates to the high capital cost in setting up such projects. WtE systems are quite expensive to install. Despite the financial benefits they promise due to the reduction in waste and production of energy, mobilizing financing for the installations is a major hurdle, particularly for new technologies that are not widely established in the market. Due to these reasons, WtE projects are more expensive than thermal power projects, especially in India. The cost of setting up of WtE plant based on biomethanation technology ranges from Rs 60 million per MW to Rs 120 million per MW, and for plants using gasification and incineration technologies, it ranges from Rs 50 million per MW to Rs 70 million per MW. This is much higher than the cost of setting up thermal power plants, which have a ball park figure of around Rs 40 million per MW, and biomass-based projects, which have an average cost of Rs 50 million per MW. However, under the new renewable purchase obligation (RPO) requirements, if distribution companies are unable to meet their RPO, they will have to use every option for renewable energy, and 53