Speaking at the inauguration of two-day RenewX, an industry event being organised by UBM India at Hitex, he said the State has also pioneered the distributed generation model to harness the benefits of renewable energy.
Hyderabad: Telangana State and its discoms have been in the forefront of producing renewable energy (RE) . The RE capacity increased from less than 50 MW during the State formation to about 3,873 MW currently, said TSSPDCL Chairman and Managing Director Raghuma Reddy.
Speaking at the inauguration of two-day RenewX, an industry event being organised by UBM India at Hitex, he said the State has also pioneered the distributed generation model to harness the benefits of renewable energy. This particular effort by TS has been appreciated at the central level, he said adding that progressive solar policy and transparent process has helped in growth of renewable energy.
The current installed solar capacity in the State is about 3,602 MW, the largest installed solar capacity in the country. Another 150 MW renewable capacity addition are planned to be added by the end of 2019, he said. Overall, the State is targeting a capacity of 5 GW from all forms of renewable energy by 2020, he said.
Challenges
The official said that Telangana being the first mover in adopting solar energy has been burdened with solar power at high prices ranging from Rs 5.17 to 6.9. Hence financial prudence is required in procuring energy from renewable energy by 2020. High penetration of renewable raises the challenges of grid balancing, he said adding that innovative solutions are required from all stakeholders to address intermittency in renewable generation. There is a need for enabling high integration of renewables in the grid he said.
Going forward, research should focus on addressing grid balancing issues, on evaluation of storage solutions and on mechanism for using availability of central generating stations to address variability in renewable generation.
On the energy outlook for the country, he said India added 6 GW in 2018-19 (till Feb), which takes the total grid connected renewable capacity to 75 GW. The recent discovered tender prices of solar (Rs 2.44 /Kwh) and wind (Rs 2.64/Kwh) will give added momentum to renewable energy addition in the country, he said.
Telangana Special Chief Secretary Ajay Mishra asked the industry to focus on developing newer and better storage solutions even as they draw up a plan to assess environmental impact in the long term due to the use of renewable energy. He stressed that environmental sustainability is also as important as being financially viable. Renewable energy generations are seasonal in nature and there should be backup plans, he said.
Adopting decentralised production of renewable energy has helped the State is saving up to Rs 50 crore due to reduced transmission and distribution losses. Also, the model allowed the power generated one a particular area to be used in the same location. This step saved about Rs 450 crore, which the State were to spend in creating transmission infrastructure to far-off places. The State has readied an EV policy and that will be out soon, he said.
Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, UBM India said, “Indian renewable energy market is attractive and India ranks fifth in installed renewable energy capacity. South India has become the growth engine by generating half of the country’s renewable energy power”.
Source: telanganatoday
