India Energy - What they say?

I did a quick search of all the top consulting firms to see if they have any recent India-focussed energy/power reports (quite a frequent thing these days I must agree). Here is what I got..

PriceWaterhouseCooopers
India ranks 6 in the world electricity market, and plans to add 100GW by 2012 was sure the first thing I noticed.
India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) in knowledge partnership with PWC released a paper titled "Business Opportunities in Oil and Natural Gas' during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (Jan 2006). The paper was a result of a study undertaken by PwC India Oil & Gas desk for IBEF focusing on business opportunities across the Oil & Gas value chain and an overview of the value chain viz. current developments and future scenarios for demand of oil and gas. The report seeks to strengthen investors’ confidence while looking at investment opportunities in Oil & Gas sector in India through success stories, key policy initiatives and the emerging scenario.

KPMG India
KPMG came out with the "India Energy Outlook" (2006). This report gives an overview of India's overall energy position in the world, followed by specific emphasis on the different sectors - coal, gas, nuclear energy, hydro, renewable sources, and finally reviews the present state of our electricity supply-demand situation.

Ernst & Young
Probabably the best coverage of the Indian market is done by EnY and I know that personally. Below are a few of their India/Asia focussed reports..
1. "Indian Electricity Sector - Opportunities and Challenges" - A one-page overview of the report that discusses the opportunities and challenges facing the Indian electricity sector.
2. "Indian Electricity Sector Guide" - The link provides a one-page overview of the guide. The guide that provides an overview of the electricity sector in India, the regulatory and taxation framework highlights investment opportunities available within the sector.
3. "Empowering the East & the North East" - A report on the present state of the electricity sector in the East and North East parts of India, with an emphasis for substantial investments to accommodate growing demand.
4. Strategies for Mitigating Fuel Crisis" - A one-page review of the final report, which analyses some of the options available to the Indian electricity sector as a whole, and their implications
5. "Gas Pricing & Regulation" - The final report provides an insight into the natural gas price mechanism and major reforms that have been initiated in this sector.
6. "Analysing the Growth of the Asian Market" (2004) - The final report highlights demand drivers and supply scenario for natural gas in Asia. The report also provides an insight into the Indian natural gas industry, looking at the existing regulatory framework and the future outlook for the NG industry.

Deloitte India
Nothing in public domain

Bain & Company
No relevant content

Please leave a comment if the link is broken and I will send you the report. Cheers!

Central Electricity Authority

Kudos to the CEA for maintaining a very good website with lot of current information on the power sector in India.

Some interesting things that I read this past weekend and thought I would share include..

A draft plan of the National Electricity Plan covering ONLY TRANSMISSION
- The one thing I liked about the executive summary is the short history of transmission in India.
The pricing and the procedure to obtain the final document titled "Perspective Transmission Plan 2011-2012 (Volume I & II) is given here.

Daily Generation Overview
- An everyday overview of the total generation in India, with split done sectorwise, regionwise and based on generation from central/state/private utilities. It also has a the plant load factors, regionwise.

Monthly Review of Power Sector
- Absolute delight to read and infer figures. Neat titles, with just the tables.

.......and many more

Bonus: A good read from our very own TERI
Mycorrhized Jatropha: Seeds of Sustainability

Emission Legislation - Pramod Panchanathan

By a good friend/collegue of mine..

Emission legislation: Is carbon trading an Easy Way out?
– Pramodh Panchanadam (2005)

In the era of sustainable operations and growth momentums, emission legislations play an important role by being checks and balances of the system. The United States being the largest producer and consumer of energy has an effective role in this. But, with President Bush do away of federal monitoring systems and the Kyoto protocol; it has become the prerogative of individual states/organizations and the preachers of sustainability, to show some action in regulation of Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission through self regulation and advocation of best practice methods. State Governments for a sustainable economic growth have started imbibing strict emission regulations but the effects of regulation has been interpreted by authors on one end as a driving force for innovation and efficacy in industries; but on the other as an instigating tool of increased cost.

Action in terms of state based federal self-regulation and emission control is presently through the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCE). The mission and vision of CEC is to provide members both from private and public sectors with cost-effective methods for reducing their GHG emissions through building and operating a market-based emission reduction and trading program. The member group operates on a cap-and-trade system at trading prices between $1.15 and $1.35 per Carbon Financial Instrument (CFI) with the base year as 2003. Compliance is through internal reductions, purchase of allowances by members facing emission limitations from others, or purchase of credits from Emission Reduction (ER) projects that meet specific criteria.


But, emission reduction programs / tradables are not “region specific”; by that we mean ER programs are not run at the point of pollution but at “convenient locations” and so are tradables. It can be better explained by the following example (Figure 1). Consider, a Thermal power plant A with X amount of excess over emission regulation; it has the option of,
a) Buying the emission tradable certificates for the excess X (or)
b) Investing in a ER project / renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to provide a sink for excess X
The problem with the scenarios depicted is, they are not region specific; that is, the tradeables or the ER program can be bought/done from any member with no criteria on region of actual pollution control, thus providing no benefits for the stakeholders in the pollution region. This is like “outsourcing” the Pollution Control instead of regulating it at point of pollution.

The future scenario should involve
a) Providing subsidiary and Tax incentives to innovative preventive pollution systems, rather then providing subsidiary across the board for RPS systems.
b) Broader system scope involving pollution abatement technologies executed at point of pollution with stakeholders involvement
c) Basic GHG policy agreeable to all regions at the national level to create universal standards of operation.

As Thomas. L. Friedman puts it as the movement of the herd in his book, “Lexus and the Olive Tree”; one section is looking in to how to abate pollution through innovative technologies and sustainable policies (the Lexus) while, others are involved in stagnant polices involved in subsidized RPS and outsourced carbon sequestering.

External Link: Indian Electricity Sector as of today

Statistics from the horse's mouth

Biggest Biofuels Production Project

British Petroleum (BP) and TERI have joined hands to undertake India's biggest Biofuels production project.

Total cost estimate: $9.4 million
Estimated period: 10 years
Land area: 8000 hectares
Location: Andhra Pradesh
Sponsor: British Petroleum (100%)
Bio-diesel source: Jatropha Carcus
Expected biodiesel: 9 million litres/year

Update: Asia-Pacific Clean Development and Climate Partnership

Kyoto Alternative Kicks off in Australia
http://www.modernpowersystems.com/story.asp?storycode=2033553

This was previously covered in this blog

Akshay Urja Shops

The Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES) has been promoting the establishment of Aditya Solar Shops in major cities of the country with a view to make solar energy products easily available and to provide after sales repair and maintenance services. From the year 2005-06 the Ministry of Non conventional Energy sources has renamed the shops as “Akshay Urja Shops” with a view to cover wider sale service of all renewable energy devices and systems including solar energy products. So far 81 shops have been established in 28 States/UTs.

Under the new solar energy scheme (which includes Akshay Urja shops) under the direction of the MNES, the network of the shops is being expanded by encouraging private entrepreneurs and NGOs to set up and operate such shops in all districts of the country. Applicants are eligible to avail loans upto Rs. 10 lakhs through designated banks banks for establishment of the shops at an interest rate of 7%. In addition, recurring grant & incentive linked with turnover upto Rs. 10,000 per month (subject to certain conditions) during the first two years of operation will also be available. The scheme will be operated through State Nodal Agencies and IREDA.

An Annexure from the MNES lists down the financial support/incentives in the solar energy programme, including 'Akhay Urja' shops.

Check out the September-October 2005 issue of Akshay Urja - newsletter of the MNES. Archives of the same newsletter can be obtained here.