Optimum Generation Planning Cogitating Commercial Viability Economic Aspects and Social Costing of Power Generation Technologies

Abstract

Abstract newline newlineElectricity has become one of the basic needs of human kind. India has recently achieved full electrification of all its habiting villages. This transformation involved years of planning, participation by all institutions and best deployment of available resources. Renewable energy (RE) has played a crucial role in this effort. RE has a great untapped potential, is nature friendly and saves foreign exchange. There is thus a conscious, encouraging policy push by Government of India to increase share of RE to not only gain in terms of its commitment to climate change accords but also to reduce dependence on fossil fuels The Government of India policy to increase RE share to 430 GW by 2030 will, however, have major implications with regard to conventional sources of generation. Due to variable and intermittent nature of renewable energy, overall power system needs sedulous management, supplemented by other generation technolo- gies for the security and stability of the power system. With aggressive use of RE, it s penetration into the grid, conventional generation will be substantially affected. If not planned, it will result in reduction of plant load factor of thermal power plants, affect plant efficiency, lead to more pollution. Thermal plants thus should run at their optimal capacity/maximum efficiency as base load stations to mitigate pollution as well as reduce cost of generation and social fallouts. Optimal efficient use of all generation technologies is needed to make generation pattern compatible with the demand pattern. Keeping aforesaid in focus, optimum base load installed capacity has been computed so that the conventional sources of energy, mainly coal, which is the most polluting source of generation, will have to be utilized in most efficient manner for base load generation. Demand exceeding base load can be better met by mix of solar with wind, hydro and gas. Keeping aforesaid in focus, optimum base load installed capacity has been computed so that the conventional sources of energy, mainl