PATIALA: The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has demanded that the National Electricity Policy be reviewed to maintain a balance between renewable energy and thermal energy and has urged Union power minister R K Singh to discuss the matter with the power engineers.
In a press release issued by AIPEF, it said over dependence on private sector to achieve the target of adding 175,000 MW power from renewable sources and curtailment of thermal energy, was neither good for the power sector nor for the country. “A major shift to renewable energy is likely to render part of coal-based thermal plants idle as per new electricity policy,” it stated.
It mentioned that as per a recently released report titled ‘Greening the grid’ by the power ministry, the plant load factors of coal-based thermal units would drop from 63% to 50% with more than 19,000 MW of capacity that would never start, and 65,000 MW of capacity. “The study has revealed that even if there is no additional renewable power added to the grid, about 10,000 MW capacities of existing thermal stations will not run even for a single day in 2022. The investments in these plants being sunk, it is no longer possible to recover any returns from them although their useful life is still not over,” the power engineers body stated further.
AIPEF executive committee has demanded a review of all long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) entered with private sector companies for thermal and solar generation and expressed concern about stranded thermal capacity in several states as these were not operated for months at a stretch on account of higher variable rate.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes
