Table of Contents
CURRENT AFFAIR
- The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy recently proposed ‘reverse bundling’ scheme for balancing between coal-fired power and renewable
WHAT IS THE BUNDLING SCHEME?
- In 2015, the government had come up with a plan to ‘bundle’ solar energy with the then cheaper coal generation
- The idea was to push sales of renewable power through a market-driven approach
WHAT IS THE RECENT PROPOSAL
- A new proposal now seeks to flip the ‘bundling’ scheme by using cheap renewable energy to subsidise costlier coalfired power
- Under ‘reverse bundling’, “high cost thermal power’’ is bundled with cheaper renewable energy to overcome the ‘intermittent-ness’ of green power
- The draft policy stipulates supply of 51% renewable energy with or without energy storage bundled with 49% thermal power component
CONCERN WITH THE COST
- The tariff for this bundled electricity could work out to be much higher instead of a simple average of cheap renewables and costlier coal supply
- This is because renewable energy can only be supplied for 6-8 hours
OTHER CONCERNS
- Coal power generators in the country are evading deadlines year after year to retrofit their plants with emission controlling systems
- If thermal power is bundled with renewable energy without storage, the coal-fired capacity will have to be ramped up and down throughout the day
- Otherwise, it has to be shut for a part of the day depending on renewable generation
- The inability of power distribution companies (discoms) to buy enough electricity due to their poor financial health is at the centre of the tussle between renewables and coal-fired power
WAY FORWARD
- Electricity from renewable sources constitutes only about 10% of the country’s total generation mix
- There is thus a long way to go in achieving higher green power generation
- India’s coal demand is expected to grow by more than that of any other country, in absolute terms, by 2024
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