Chhattisgarh is among 10 other States in the country, which will participate in a joint initiative with the Central Government for creating a cost-effective power generation infrastructure which is sustainable and inclusive of clean energy solutions, officials stated.
The Central Government has also taken up a joint initiative for preparation of State specific documents for ensuring 24X7 power supply for all. Documents for 10 States namely Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya, Goa, Jharkhand, Assam , Telangana, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh have already been signed till Monday, they stated.
The preparation of documents for other States is proposed to be completed by end of this month.
The Union Cabinet recently approved Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojna or UDAY to ease the financial crunch faced by power distribution companies. The scheme was launched to tackle debt of `4.3 lakh crore on DISCOMs utilities besides measures to cut power thefts and align consumer tariff with cost of generating electricity.
UDAY assures the rise of vibrant and efficient DISCOMs through a permanent resolution of past as well as potential future issues of the sector. It empowers DISCOMs with the opportunity to break even in the next 2-3 years. This is through four initiatives of improving operational efficiencies of DISCOMs, reducing power costs, decreasing interest cost of DISCOMs and enforcing financial discipline on DISCOMs through alignment with State finances.
The scheme is getting great support from several States. Twelve States namely Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand have given their in-principle nod to join UDAY as on December 19, 2015, officials stated.
The NDA Government has initiated National Smart Grid Mission to make the Indian Power infrastructure cost effective, responsive and reliable. Smart grids use sensors, meters, digital controls and analytic tools to automate, monitor and control the two-way flow of energy across operations—from power plant to plug. This is a very ambitious programme and the 100 smart cities to be set up will also have smart grids resulting in sizeable savings in power.
The generation capacity addition during 2015-16 (April-November, 2015) is 9,466 MW against the annual target of 20,037 in the country. The capacity addition during the first 3 years and 8 months (1-April-2012 to 08-December-2015) of the 12th Plan is 70,480 MW which has not only exceeded the capacity addition of 54,964 MW of the entire 11th Plan (2007-2012) but also constitute 79.6 per cent of the total 12th Plan target of 88,537 MW.
Notably, Chhattisgarh has wind energy potential of 77 MW at 100 metres above ground level according to the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE).
The NIWE recently launched Wind Energy Resource Map of India at 100 metre above ground level (AGl) on online Geographic Information System platform. The wind energy potential in the country at 100 m AGl is over 302 GW, officials stated.
The wind power is being installed in the country under three different modes — Sale to DISCOMS under Feed-in-Tariff mode; Captive use; and Third party sale under Independent Power Producer (IPP) mode. The Central Government is promoting all three modes of installation.
The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission on August 7, 2015 has notified forecasting and scheduling regulations and also Deviation Settlement Mechanism for inter-state transmission of solar and wind energy. Further, the Forum of Regulators has also issued model regulations on forecasting, scheduling & deviation settlement of wind & solar generators for intra-state transmission.
Notably, the Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA) had already identified suitable sites in three districts of the State suitable for setting up wind power projects.
The locations are- Rajmergarh in Bilaspur district, Kameleshwarpur and Rouni in Jashpur district, Chipani and Kukdur in Kabirdham district.
The NIWE and CREDA have also jointly established a Wind Monitoring Station at a height of 50 metres in the year 2005-06 for assessment of wind resources and its characteristics at Rajmergarh village in Bilaspur district.
Accordingly, CREDA has started the process of setting up wind power projects in the three districts of the State. India ranks 4th in the world in terms of power generation.
The MNRE has proposed grid power of 175 GW from various renewable energy sources by the year 2022. This includes 100 GW from solar, 60 GW from wind, 10 GW from bio-power and 5 GW from small hydro power, officials stated.
The geothermal programme of the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is presently in research and development stage. The cost of generation of electricity from geothermal energy is presently very high, hence, the promotion of geothermal energy production of power will not be possible in short and medium terms.
The MNRE has been carrying out a Wind Resource Assessment (WRA) Programme in the country through NIWE in association with State Nodal Agencies.
The Ministry has initiated a new scheme on implementation of Wind Resource Assessment in Uncovered / New Areas with an aim to assess the realistic potential at 100m level in 500 new stations under the National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) also to be implemented through C-WET.