Availability of, and access to, electricity is a crucial element of modern economies and it helps pave the way for human development. Accordingly, the power sector has been given a high priority in the national planning processes in India and a concerted focus on enhancing this sector has resulted in significant gains in generation and availability of electricity in the years since independence.
Coal-based power has driven much of the growth in India’s power sector over the past three decades. By 2004-05, coal and lignite accounted for about 57% of installed capacity (68 GW out of 118 GW) and 71% of generated electricity (424 TWh out of 594 TWh) in the country; currently, the power sector consumes about 80% of the coal produced in the country. As the demand for electricity is expect to rise dramatically over the next decade, coal will continue to be the dominant energy source. The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has estimated that meeting electricity demand over the next ten years will require more than doubling the existing capacity, from about 132 GW in 2007 to about 280 GW by 2017, of which at least 80 GW of new capacity is expected to be based on coal.
Our analysis suggests that commercial supercritical combustion technology is the best option for India in the short-to-medium term. While gasification and advanced combustion technologies will be potentially important options for the longer-term future, there are significant issues surrounding the current relevance of these emerging technologies for India, including uncertainties in technical and cost trajectory, suitability for Indian conditions, and timing of India’s greenhouse-gas mitigation commitments. Given the still evolving (technical and deployment) nature of many of the key technologies, our analysis suggests that India should not make rigid technology choices for the long term, but rather keep its options open. We have also developed an illustrative technology roadmap for the India’s coal-power sector, along with key policies to help implement the roadmap:
(a) improve the efficiency of the power system (generating stock, T&D network, and end-use sectors) to reduce the need for addition in generation capacity and therefore buy time for making appropriate technology decisions;
(b) implement supercritical-combustion-based generation plants to meet capacity addition needs in the short-to-medium term;
(c) evaluate on an ongoing basis the appropriateness of emerging technologies for India through a monitoring and feasibility assessment program, and by advancing specific elements of these technologies and ensure that they can be deployed as and when needed through a strategic research, development, and demonstration program, in partnership with key actors rom the coal and hydrocarbon mining, and the petrochemical industry;
(d) enforce and tighten local environmental pollution controls through better pollution control technologies and greater and meaningful public participation; and
(e) invest in a focused plan to examine geological carbon storage options, with detailed assessment of CO2 storage locations, capacity and storage mechanisms in order to collect
valuable information for India’s carbon mitigation options and inform future technology selection as well as siting decisions for coal-power plants.
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