The Indian power sector has come a long way since Independence. From a generation capacity of mere 1,362mw in 1947, it has grown to 1,32,329mw by the end of fiscal 2006-07. While the growth has been phenomenal, the country is still faced with acute power shortage —with energy and peak shortages of 9.5% (55,000 million units) and 14.2% (14,500mw).
The new Electricity Act has given a fresh impetus to growth of generation capacity to enable the government to provide power for all by 2012. While policy is aiding growth, it has continued to base a substantial share of this on development of thermal power projects, which already account for about 60% of country’s total power generation capacity.
Even future projects of growth are largely dependant on coal, which, at current level of usage, is expected to last only 65 years.
The growth of hydel power has progressed slowly owing to land acquisition and environment-related problems. Nuclear power, which accounts for a mere 3% of our total generation capacity, is projected to evolve as one of the future sources of energy for the country. One reason for its stunted growth is acute shortage of fuel — uranium.
It is here that the Indo-US deal will give a big boost to the nuclear sector. The most important boost will be that our fuel-starved nuclear power stations could hope to get adequate supplies to bring back the plant load factor (PLF) from present 60% to over 90% as was the case earlier.
In the medium term, the deal would provide room for faster expansion of our network of nuclear power stations. “If we are looking at a long-term solution for building energy security, nuclear energy’s contribution would have to go up to at least 10% in medium term. This would mean about 100,000mw of capacity by 2030 by when total generation is expected to rise to 1 million mw. If this has to happen, the Indo-US deal would play an important role,” said Mr Kirit Parikh, member (energy), Planning Commission.
Mr Parikh said the uranium fuel in India’s nuclear plants costs three times than the prevailing global prices due to poor deposits. It is, therefore, important that foreign players bring in technology for scientific mining of uranium ore so that not only quantity of ore in increased but also quality is improved,” Mr Parikh said. At present, uranium ore is a low-grade 0.1% compared with 12-14% globally.
India’s current nuclear programme is based on use of two fuels, namely, enriched uranium and natural uranium. Enriched uranium is used in boiling water reactor, the first Indian commercial plant, at Tarapur with capacity of 320mw. The remaining capacity is based on natural uranium as fuel, availability of which is proving to be more critical now.
In the Eleventh Plan (2007-2012), the government aims to add a modest 3,380mw of nuclear energy capacity. This is mainly because the fuel is in short supply. With consumption of about 20 kg of uranium fuel per million units of power generated, fuel required for a 100mw plant is about 15 tonnes at 90% capacity utilisation. For existing capacity the fuel requirement is about 600-650 tonnes a year. This is far short of our current level of production.
Apart from the Russian reactors, for which fuel would be supplied by Russia, another 880mw of capacity is expected to come online within next 15 months. But, a big jump in India’s fuel needs would come by 2015, when post-deal projects should come on stream. As per World Nuclear Association, plants with more than 10,000mw capacity are at the proposal stage. These may take shape in next 12-18 months.
This would mean further pressure on fuel and a slip in PLF unless newer sources of fuel are tied up. It is here the deal could come to the rescue as it would enable India to source uranium as well as technology and investments.
Experts say that apart from meeting the short-term needs of fuel, the pact would pave the way for global companies to participate setting up nuclear reactors in India. This is all the more urgent with significant shortage of power and faster capacity addition targets. Global majors like Siemens, Areva, GE and Westinghouse have enough manufacturing capacity to move in once all the clearances are in place.
The new Electricity Act has given a fresh impetus to growth of generation capacity to enable the government to provide power for all by 2012. While policy is aiding growth, it has continued to base a substantial share of this on development of thermal power projects, which already account for about 60% of country’s total power generation capacity.
Even future projects of growth are largely dependant on coal, which, at current level of usage, is expected to last only 65 years.
The growth of hydel power has progressed slowly owing to land acquisition and environment-related problems. Nuclear power, which accounts for a mere 3% of our total generation capacity, is projected to evolve as one of the future sources of energy for the country. One reason for its stunted growth is acute shortage of fuel — uranium.
It is here that the Indo-US deal will give a big boost to the nuclear sector. The most important boost will be that our fuel-starved nuclear power stations could hope to get adequate supplies to bring back the plant load factor (PLF) from present 60% to over 90% as was the case earlier.
In the medium term, the deal would provide room for faster expansion of our network of nuclear power stations. “If we are looking at a long-term solution for building energy security, nuclear energy’s contribution would have to go up to at least 10% in medium term. This would mean about 100,000mw of capacity by 2030 by when total generation is expected to rise to 1 million mw. If this has to happen, the Indo-US deal would play an important role,” said Mr Kirit Parikh, member (energy), Planning Commission.
Mr Parikh said the uranium fuel in India’s nuclear plants costs three times than the prevailing global prices due to poor deposits. It is, therefore, important that foreign players bring in technology for scientific mining of uranium ore so that not only quantity of ore in increased but also quality is improved,” Mr Parikh said. At present, uranium ore is a low-grade 0.1% compared with 12-14% globally.
India’s current nuclear programme is based on use of two fuels, namely, enriched uranium and natural uranium. Enriched uranium is used in boiling water reactor, the first Indian commercial plant, at Tarapur with capacity of 320mw. The remaining capacity is based on natural uranium as fuel, availability of which is proving to be more critical now.
In the Eleventh Plan (2007-2012), the government aims to add a modest 3,380mw of nuclear energy capacity. This is mainly because the fuel is in short supply. With consumption of about 20 kg of uranium fuel per million units of power generated, fuel required for a 100mw plant is about 15 tonnes at 90% capacity utilisation. For existing capacity the fuel requirement is about 600-650 tonnes a year. This is far short of our current level of production.
Apart from the Russian reactors, for which fuel would be supplied by Russia, another 880mw of capacity is expected to come online within next 15 months. But, a big jump in India’s fuel needs would come by 2015, when post-deal projects should come on stream. As per World Nuclear Association, plants with more than 10,000mw capacity are at the proposal stage. These may take shape in next 12-18 months.
This would mean further pressure on fuel and a slip in PLF unless newer sources of fuel are tied up. It is here the deal could come to the rescue as it would enable India to source uranium as well as technology and investments.
Experts say that apart from meeting the short-term needs of fuel, the pact would pave the way for global companies to participate setting up nuclear reactors in India. This is all the more urgent with significant shortage of power and faster capacity addition targets. Global majors like Siemens, Areva, GE and Westinghouse have enough manufacturing capacity to move in once all the clearances are in place.
Via: India Economic Times
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