A major topic in India: The combination of renewable energies and thermal power plants
- Series of events with high-ranking experts illustrates the ambitious targets of the Indian electricity supply industry
- Great interest in experience with the "energy transition"
- European technical association VGB PowerTech supports Indian partners
Dr. Ajay Mathur, Dr. Winfried Damm, S.D. Mathur
“Supercritical Generation and Integration with Renewables – Learnings from German Experience”; under this motto the Indian Excellence Enhancement Centre (EEC) had simultaneously invited visitors to three events in New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. The subject was the challenges for the Indian electricity sector, with information and the background to the German energy transition.
At the opening conference in New Delhi, over 150 participants discussed the technical challenges that result from the fluctuating and volatile power feed from renewable energies. The list of participating institutions reads like the Who's Who of the Indian energy industry: state authorities such as the Central Electricity Authority, the largest Indian plant operator NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation), various state electricity boards, e.g. Maharashtra and Telangana State Power Generation, as well as private IPPs (independent power producers) such as Tata Power and Adani. The very ambitious expansion targets for renewable energies in India were clearly explained by Shri Upendra Tripathy, Secretary of State at the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), in his welcoming address. The Indian government has thus set itself the target of installing a total of 100,000 MW of photovoltaic systems by 2022, including both small systems and major facilities; 33 times the current capacity.
The event was supported by experts from the European technical association for the power and heat generation industry, VGB PowerTech. “Our Indian colleagues are driven by the same topics as we are,” explains Dr Oliver Then, Head of the VGB Competence Centre for Power Plant Technologies. “Flexible thermal power plants are also in demand in India for ensuring system stability,” continues Then. The participants therefore expressed great interest in solutions for lower minimum loads, higher load gradients and shorter start-up times for power plants. Over and above this, the agenda covered experience with new plant construction projects and the efficiency optimisation of existing plants.
The presentations of the VGB Team made particular reference to the benefits that a technical industry network can contribute to all participants through knowledge management, training and exchanging experience. The association can point to its extensive experience here, with which it successfully supports its 500 members as a competence platform. The EEC, essentially the mirror image of VGB in India, is an industry platform of the Indian electricity generators which – like VGB – is intended to ensure intensive technical exchanges within the industry in order to increase the efficiency and availability of Indian power plants. VGB supports the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) here in setting up the EEC. “Our many meetings with the Indian plant operators demonstrate the need for an organisation like the EEC,” summarises Dr Then. This is why VGB wished to continue supporting the EEC even after the conclusion of the GIZ support project and to create a long-term basis for this partnership through a Memorandum of Understanding.
*) The EEC project was initiated within the framework of the Indo-German Energy Forum and received a subsidy within the framework of the International Climate Protection Initiative of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety. The objective is for the EEC to become self-financing after this start-up phase through membership fees or other services.