Project Tracking System: A mechanism for Monitoring & Verification (M&V) of Renewable Energy projects

Submitted By: Amishi Jain (09) R G Sanjay Prakash (47)

Centre for Sustainable Development Bangalore

Formed by Dr. A Ravindra IAS(Retd.), Ex- Chief Secretary, Karnataka. One of the first institutions in Karnataka to address sustainable development issues as an integrated approach. Mission:To develop methods and practices that bring sustainable development into the policies and pogrammes of the planners and implementers

Milestones
Profiling of Municipal Solid Waste in Bangalore city - 2004 Water use practices and consumption at household and commercial establishments - 2005 Launched the 1st Environment Report Card in 2005 Establishment of EWA for management of E Wastes in the city in 2007 Rural Eco sanitation & Decentralized Treatment System at Ancharahalli Village in 2009

 First in the country to be involved in designing of a Food Safety Implementation Plan in 2011 Energy Symposium and Vendors Conclave 2011 Bangalore World Water Summit 2012 Second Environment Report Card for Bangalore - 2012

Projects undertaken in Energy sector

Energy Audit Employee training GRIHA Training Energy symposium and vendors conclave Solar PV training for technicians

Dr. J. Gururaja, Sr. Adviser MNRE (Rtd.) and Sr. Advisor Energy and Transport Branch, United Nations (Rtd.)
Faculty member at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (196176) Director of New Energy Sources Division, Department of Science and Technology, and subsequently as Adviser in the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources 1996 to 2005, he was with the United Nations as Senior Adviser, Energy and Transport Branch, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, New York.

Context of the problem

Renewable Energy is still in nascent stage in India and growth of this sector is not market oriented and hence needs support of government in the initial stages of development in order to make it self sustaining. The multiplicity of laws, regulations and agencies governing the RE sector makes integrated intervention difficult.

 By the end of 12th five year plan, we are targeting installed RE capacity to increase from 28,000 MW to 58,000 MW. To achieve this ambitious target, approval and commissioning of projects is being done at a faster pace. To promote RE, govt. is only focusing on the allotment of plants rather than the post performance evaluation of plant during its operational phase. In present scenario there exists no evaluation system which could track the performance of existing projects at macro level so as to portrait a clear growth trajectory of RE sector over the time and the deviations that needs to be corrected.

Need for Solving the problem

At this present scenario, we dont have any inspection and verification system which could measure the effectiveness of on-going projects and thus predict the sustainability of RE in future. By establishing a practice of regular monitoring of projects, we can comprehend the trends of RE for future.

Objective of the Project

To identify issues and challenges in the various segments of RE Sector.
After analysis, prepare a Monitoring, Measurement & Verification (MMV) System.

Issues & Challenges

Biomass As on date KREDL allotted 38 biomass project of total capacity 253MW but out of it only 13 project has been commissioned so for amount to total capacity of 91MW Out of 13 plant commissioned only 2 are running and 11 are shutdown In last 7 years only 2 projects are commissioned of 6MW and 2.5MW capacity depicting the slow rate of biomass growth in Karnataka

 Tariff escalation has not taken place in accordance with the hike in raw material price Procurement of raw material is one of the major issues in order to sustain the continuous operation of plant. Government has allotted 10 biomass project in last 4 years of total capacity 61 MW without foreseeing the availability of raw materials in the market and examine the sustainability.

Cogeneraion
Plants are not able to meet their estimated annual energy generation. Procurement and price hike of raw material to meet the generation requirement During off season cogeneration plant are shutdown as they are not allowed to use coal for their power production

 All cogeneration plant opt for third party sale through interstate open access thus not contributing to the RPO fulfilment of the ESCPOMs Cogeneration plants opt for 3rd party sale through power exchanges such as IEX but the market clearance price has been drastically decreasing from Rs. 7670/MWh in June 2008 to presently Rs. 2726/MWh in May 2013. Generators are more interested in open access rather than PPA with ESCOMs but there is no option for intrastate open access in Karnataka.

Wind
KREDL ha s allotted 11404.765MW of wind power out of which only 2199.135 MW has been commissioned. Very few potential sites are left in Karnataka and majority of them have been blocked by the developers who have been issued Government Orders in 2005 and 2006. The developers have withheld their allotments neither implementing the projects nor surrendering the allotments to the government. Land conversion regulations for private and forest land processes are very typical, complex and time consuming as compared to other states like Tamilnadu.

 The optimal wind resources are often distant from load centres, transmission-related costs and evacuation facilities can be an important consideration for wind project development
The generation based incentives and accelerated depreciation scheme by MNRE have been withdrawn since 1st April 2012. Thus resulting in drastically decrease in the investment in this sector

 Wind is a naturally intermittent resource that must be approached by planners and system operators differently than conventional fossilfired generation resources. Wind resources are characterized by daily and seasonal patterns that are unique to the location and topography of each site. Thus posing challenges for scheduling and threat to grid security. The High Voltage grid connected wind farms go out of synchronization during monsoons due to drastic drop in consumption of Irrigation Pump Sets, thus posing threats to grid security.

Small-Hydro
As per the existing norms the procedure for site allotment, respective approvals, agreements, implementation and generation is normally 4 5 years and as such the policies must take care of the different projects likely to be at different levels of development. No proper data base of rain fall over the year and their data base are also not reliable and accurate so proper data base management is require.

 The plant load factor shall also vary in different streams with inflow of hydrology and thus tariff should not be linked with plant load factor.
Statutory Clearances from Gram Panchayat, Pollution Control Board/Environment, Irrigation & Public Health, Fisheries, Wild Life & Essentiality Certificate take more than the stipulated time and efforts.

 The optimal hydro resources are often distant from load centres, transmission-related costs and evacuation facilities are an important consideration for small hydro projects development.

Solar Projects
In spite of fulfilment of RPO government is not interested to go beyond the target though the developers are interested to invest in this sector. REC mechanism has been struggling to grow the solar sector.
Lack of monitoring system for solar data base resulting in uncertainty in the scheduling. Thus threat to grid stability

Recommendations
The variability and intermittency of wind energy generation is being addressed by the varying output of hydro plants whereas thermal plants can being operated as meeting the base load. Since the wind generation is very unpredictable. So instead of connecting it to the grid we can use this power in some other purpose like for pumping the water back in the reservoir so that the level of reservoir will increase and we can use them when there is no wind electricity generation.

 Some of the States have abundant renewable energy resources, while others are deficit. In case of large scale renewable generation, it is not possible to absorb the energy locally, particularly during other than peak hour condition. Transmission system is required to be planned for integrating renewable generation with the state grid as well as with the inter-state grid.

 Considering load flow studies we have come to the conclusion to have intra-State as well as Inter-State transmission infrastructure for evacuation of Renewable power from eight (8) RE rich states i.e. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.

 Proper monitoring of wind plant during raining season. Because during rainy season there is very much load variation so wind mill goes out of synchronization from grid and there production is stop. And extra power will be used for pumped storage plant and for filling of reservoir.

 Only limited no of biomass and cogeneration plant should be there in the district according to the raw material availability. So that there is limited competition for buying of biomass and it cost will remain under control. During off season cogeneration plant should be given the permission for use of coal for power production because they have full infrastructure to produce electricity instead of setting of new plant for power production by coal in the state.