Chhattisgarh has submitted a proposal for fresh tendering of solar projects as mandated by the Union Ministry of Power including Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) upto 20,000 MW by June 30, 2017.
The commitment was made by the State to the Union Ministry of Power as per a document presented by Union Ministry of Power in a Conference of Power, Renewable Energy and Mines held on May 3 and 4 in New Delhi this year.
It may be recalled that Chhattisgarh is also striving hard to make itself a front line State in terms of number of solar powered farm irrigation pumps distributed in the State.
Under the Saur Sujala Yojana that was launched last year in November the Government is targetting to install around 11,300 solar powered irrigation pumps in the first phase out of which 8,741 have already been distributed to farmers, officials informed.
During the second and third phase of the scheme installation of around 20,000 solar pumps in each phase has been targetted , they informed.
Notably, CREDA will also develop an elaborate water distribution network for its solar community irrigation projects in 29 locations of the State, officials informed.
The key districts where the solar community irrigation projects had been focussed are- Gariaband, Dhamtari, Kabirdham, Mahasamund, Raigarh, Janjgir-Champa, Jashpur and Sukma.
A total of 19 remote villages have been approved for creation of solar ‘mini grids’ to provide them access to power supply as on February 2017 in Chhattisgarh, the Central Government has informed.
Village mini-grids are important components of universal access to electricity in the country particularly for those villages where grid connectivity is either not feasible or not cost effective, it informed.
Under the RGGVY scheme launched by the Central government for attainment of goal of providing access to electricity to all households, a provision of Rs 540 crore has been kept as subsidy requirement for electrification of villages where grid connectivity is either not feasible or not cost effective for Decentralized Distributed Generation (DDG) during 11th Plan period.
DDG may be from conventional or renewable or non-conventional sources such as biomass, bio fuel, bio gas, mini hydro, geo thermal, solar, etc.
The funding is on the pattern of 90% subsidy from Government of India and 10% loan from Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) or from own funds of the state/loan from financial institutions.
In a separate scheme, the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) provides a subsidy of 30% of project cost subject to a maximum of Rs.150/- per watt peak for installation of stand alone rural Solar Photo Voltaic (SPV) power plants with battery storage in a micro grid mode/local distribution network under the Off-grid Solar Applications Scheme of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission.
This scheme is open to all the States and Union Territories. So far, one project of 20 kWp capacity standalone SPV micro grid project has been installed in the State of Jharkhand. MNRE has released an amount of Rs.30 lakh during 2009-10 for a 20 kWp stand-alone SPV power project at Jhargram village in Gumla district in Jharkhand. Rs.50 lakh and Rs.53 lakh were released during 2010-11 and 2011-12 respectively for a stand-alone SPV power plant in Village Jari, Gumla district in Jharkhand. During 2011-12, MNRE has sanctioned 533 kWp for SPV micro grid projects in the States of Uttar Pradesh(U.P) and West Bengal. An amount of Rs.45 lakh has been released for projects in U.P. Notably, the Central Government has approved 11.2 MWp of power generation capacity from grid connected roof-top solar power plants in Chhattisgarh as on January 31, 2017. Nationally, an amount of Rs 600 crore has been allocated for the projects under “Grid Connected Rooftop and Small Solar power Plants Programme” and Rs. 508.84 Crore has been released as on the aforesaid period, the Central Government has informed.
The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) has been promoting “Grid Connected Rooftop and Small Solar Power Plants Programme” with a Central Financial Assistance (CFA) of upto 30% of benchmark cost in General category States and up to 70 % in Special Category States, North Eastern States, lakshadweep, Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Residential, Institutional and Social sector are covered under this CFA pattern.
For Government Sector, achievement linked incentive up to Rs 18750/kWp in General Category States and Rs.45000/kWp in Special Category States , North Eastern States and Andaman & Nicobar Islands and lakshadweep is available under the Programme, it informed.
Notably, Chhattisgarh will procure additional power from renewable energy sources to the tune of approximately 700 MW by FY 2018, officials informed. With this the average power purchase cost for Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company ltd (CSPDCl) based on the above power availability will increase from 2.58 Rs/kWh in FY 2015-16 to 3.12 Rs/kWh in FY 2018, they informed.
The rates have been derived based on cost of power at existing rates and considering no escalation in power purchase cost since it is passing through for the distribution company. Notably, CREDA has invested Rs 400 crores during the last 11 years in developing infrastructure for solar power generation which had resulted in 40 MW of electricity being generated from non conventional energy sources.
The agency will be installing a total of 10,000 submersible and surface solar photo voltaic (SPV) irrigation pumps in farm lands soon across the State.
The SPV Pumps shall be provided with lightening and over voltage protection. The principal aim in this protection is to reduce the over voltage to a tolerable value before it reaches the PV or other sub-systems components. The source of over voltage can be lightening or any other atmospheric disturbance, officials informed. The State currently also has total renewable energy potential of 4,500 MW which includes solar (grid connected and roof top), wind biomass and small hydro.
It has also planned to install solar powered pump sets for agriculture consumers which will benefit 16,000 consumers. It may be recalled that there are significantly more number of villages which are to be electrified in Chhattisgarh using the off-grid (solar) mode than the grid-based (conventional power supply.
The State has also launched a ‘Solar Community Irrigation Project’ for drawing water extracted using solar pumps for supplying to the agricultural land of farmers across the State. The Central government has released Rs 12 lakh each for Raipur and Bilaspur for the Solar City project, officials informed. The total sanctioned funds for the two cities is Rs 43 lakh each. A total amount of Rs. 67.01 crore has been sanctioned for preparation of master plans, solar city cells, promotional activities and installation of renewable energy projects and an amount of Rs. 24.16 crore has been released, so far, under Solar City Programme.
Out of 7 identified solar cities in Maharashtra, an amount of Rs. 7.74 crore has been sanctioned and an amount of Rs. 3.04 crore has been released for 6 solar cities.
Notably , Chhattisgarh will procure additional power from renewable energy sources to the tune of approximately 700 MW by FY 2018, officials informed. Notably, the state-owned Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company ltd (CSPDCl) in January last year had also announced that it will be purchasing 50 MW of electricity from bio-mass power producers in the State.
The company would sign a 20-year agreement with the power producers, officials stated. Chhattisgarh is among the leading States for implementing bio-mass power projects such as Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, according to Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). Chhattisgarh had biomass projects generating a total of 249 MW of power as on March 31, 2015.
The total power generation from biomass projects by 12 other states during the aforesaid period in Megawatts is as follows- Andhra Pradesh ( 288), Gujarat ( 30.50), Haryana ( 13.50), Karnataka ( 107.50), Madhya Pradesh (26), Maharshtra ( 198), Odisha ( 20), Punjab ( 68.50), Rajasthan ( 101), Tamil Nadu ( 211.70), Uttar Pradesh ( 54) and West Bengal ( 26).
The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy provides Central Financial Assistance at the rate of Rs 25.00 lakh per Mega Watt in special category States and Rs 20 lakh per Mega Watt for other States with a cap of Rs. 1.50 crore per project.
Chhattisgarh produced 527.63 lakh cubic meters of bio-gas from family type bio-gas plants and large bio-gas plants in the entire State during the 11th Five Year Plan period.
The estimated State-wise production of bio-gas from family type bio-gas plants and large biogas plants installed in the country under different programmes of the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) during the 11th Five Year Plan period is as follows (in lakh cubic metres)- Andhra Pradesh (9969.60), Assam(1616.33) Bihar (2325.94) Goa (71.83) Gujarat (8731.94) Haryana (1112.13) Himachal Pradesh (842.47) Jammu & Kashmir (47.44) Jharkhand (107.19) Karnataka (8213.62) Kerala (2399.30) Madhya Pradesh (5713.25) Maharashtra(15297.74) Manipur (38.80) Meghalaya (146.30) Mizoram (72.40) Nagaland (95.83) Odisha (4402.65) Punjab (2966.70) Rajasthan (1235.30) Sikkim (144.66) Tamil Nadu (5261.66) Tripura (53.25 )Uttar Pradesh(7765.80) Uttarakhand (531.37) West Bengal (6213.70).
About 6.10 lakh family type bio-gas plants were installed during the 11th Five Year Plan against a target of 6.47 lakh plants under the National Biogas and Manure Management Programme.
The data available with the Ministry pointed out that the States which have taken leadership position in implementation of bagasse co-generation projects are Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.