New policy looks beyond energy security

Plan is to export surplus power to other States by inviting private investments

The government is likely to announce in a week its renewable energy export policy that aims at not only ensuring energy security to the State but also exporting the surplus to other States by allowing private investors.

“Andhra Pradesh has vast potential for renewable energy such as wind and solar power. India plans to add 500 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy to its electricity grid by 2030 in an attempt to clean up the air in cities and lessen the economy’s rapidly growing dependence on coal. In line with the national policy, the State has also identified 29 feasible on-river and off-river locations to promote Pumped Storage Hydro (PSH) projects,” said Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (NREDCAP) S. Ramana Reddy.

PHS projects

He said the idea was to generate power to balance the variable renewable energy power and to meet the peak energy demand in the State.

PHS projects operate by exploiting the difference in height between two water bodies to store energy. In this system, energy is stored by pumping water from the lower reservoir to the upper reservoir, and is recovered by releasing the stored water from the upper reservoir. It is the most common and commercially viable large-scale electricity storage technology globally.

Tapping of solar and wind energy is time-based. “We get solar power only in the day time and wind energy only in the evening and mainly during three months in a year. Their variable nature puts a huge burden on the grid. The option of battery storage is a costly affair and we don’t have the technology,” explained Mr. Reddy.

Of the 29 locations identified, the Water and Power Consultancy Services (India), a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, had surveyed 21 sites and Tata Consultancy the remaining and submitted their reports.

Mr. Reddy said through the renewable energy export policy, the government was keen on attracting private investments. “First preference will be to ensure energy security of the State and the spare capacity can be exported,” he said.

Benefits

The benefits, he said, would include investment flow into the State, round-the-clock power availability, employment generation, tax revenue to the government in the form of GST and land lease rentals for farmers who could put to use their uncultivable and waste lands and get a fixed income for 30 years, and the money would get pumped into the economy.