Reserves and Production of Energy
- 17 % of world's population.
- Population Growth rate of 1.51% .
- 4 largest economy in the world by GDP.
- GDP growth of 7-8%.
- 11 largest Energy Producer in the world.
- Produces 2.4 % of world production.
- Ranks 6 in Energy Consumption.
- Consumes 3.5 % of world consumption.
Energy sources :
In India the three primary sources which accounts for the major portion of the energy needs are
- Coal
- Oil
- Natural gas
Out of the above three, coal dominates the energy mix in India, contributing to 68.3% of the total primary energy production. Over the years, there has been a marked increases in the share of natural gas in primary energy production from 10% in 1994 to 13% in 1999. There has been a decline in the share of oil in primary energy production from 20% to 17% during the same period. The details of available quantum in each of these sources are given in succeeding sections.
1. Coal :
India has huge coal reserves , at least 84,396 million tonnes of proven recoverable reserves. This amounts to almost 8.6% of the world reserves and it may last for about 230 years at the current Reserve to Production (R/P) ratio. In contrast, the world's proven coal reserves are expected to last only for 192 years at the current R / P ratio. The reserve to production (R/P) ratio is defined as :
"If the reserves remaining at the end of the year are divided by the production in the year, the result is the length of time that the remaining reserves would last if production were continue at that level." India is the fourth largest producer of coal and lignite in the world. Coal production is concentrated in these states (Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradsh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Jharkhand , West Bengal).
The salient features of coal production in India could be summarized as below :
- Reserve of 220 Billion tons, proven of 84 Billion tons
- Ranks 4 in terms of coal producing countries
- Reserves may last 230 years
- Coal is the cheapest fuel for power generation
- Demand projection for this year is 453 Million tons
- Forecast for indigenous production is 405 million tons
- Balance to be met by imports
- Environmental Impact due to pollution and emissions
- Non-renewable source of energy India's commitment with the Kyoto Protocol.
Coal gasification :
To reduce the adverse effects of large scale use of coal on environment and global warming due to polluting gases, Coal gasification may be resorted to. The salient features of coal gasification are
- Improves efficiency and reduces environmental impacts.
- Capital and generations costs comparable with a PC plant.
- Washing coal has its advantages, but it is technically challenging and economically unattractive.
2. Oil :
Oil accounts for about 36% of India's total energy consumption, India today is one of the top ten oil-producing nation in the world and will soon overtake Korea as the third largest consumer of oil in Asia after China and Japan. The country's annual crude oil production is peaked at about 32 million tonne as against the current-peak demand of about 110 million tone India's oil consumption at the end of 2007 reached 136 million tonne (MT), of which domestic production was only 34 MT. India will have to pay an oil bill of roughly S 125 billion, assuming a weighted average price of $ 125 per barrel of crude. India imports 70 % of its crude needs mainly from gulf nations. The majority of India's roughly 5.4 billion barrels in oil reserves are located in the Bombay High, upper Assam, Cambay, Krishna-Godavari. In terms of sector wise petroleum product consumption, transport accounts for 42 % followed by domestic and industry with 24% and 24% respectively.
Therefore we can summarize as follows :
- Oil contributes 36% of our energy needs.
- India has 0.4% of World's Oil Reserves
- Demand equivalent to 2.8% of World Out Resources
- Production just 34 million tons
- Out oil sufficiency this year is expected to go down to 26%
- In 2011, this will further reduce to 20%
- Crude oil imports during April-September 2006 were US $ 28,664 million.
3. Natural gas :
Natural gas accounts for about 8.9 per cent of energy consumption in the country. The current demand for natural gas is about 96 million cubic metres per day (mcmd) as against availability of 67 memd. By 2007, the demand is expected to be around 200 memd. Natural gas reserves are estimated at 660 billion cubic meters. It is expected that this demand may increase to 314 million cubic metres/day by 2010 and 400 memd by 2025.
4. Nuclear power :
Nuclear power contributes to about 2.4 per cent of electricity generated in India. India has ten nuclear power reactors at five nuclear power stations producing electricity. More nuclear reactors have also been approved for construction. India has established its capability in design, engineering, construction and operation of nuclear power plants. The installed capacity is 3310 MW, less than 3% of total installed capacity of power, consisting of two Boiling Water Reactors, and twelve Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors, cight more reactors (total capacity 3420 MW) are under construction. India believes that nuclear power could be a good source of its power profile and therefore its proportion should increase from 2.6% to say 7 to 8% by 2030 which will mean a capacity of over 55,000 MW. Department of Atomic Energy, therefore, has evolved an approach and perspective which includes setting up of Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors in the first stage, fast breeder reactors in the second stage and Reactors based on Uranium 233-Thorium 232 cycle in the third stages. Constructions on two units of 1000 MW at Kudankulam in Tamilnadu, as per the agreement between India and Russia marks the beginning of introduction of Light Water Reactors (LWR).
The salient feature of Nuclear energy scenario in India are :
- Based on Uranium deposits in the first stage (PHWRs and FBRS)
- In later stages, Thorium deposits comes into play.
- Uranium reserves extremely limited at 70,000 metric tons.
- However Thorium reserves are huge, at 3,60,000-5,00,000 metric tons.
- Available resources of Uranium can support 10,000 MW based on PHWRs.
- India has 14 existing nuclear power plants-2 BWRs and 12 PHWRS
- Total installed capacity of 2720 MW through these
- The Nuclear deal with the US should definitely help, but there are complex geo-political. considerations.
India is endowed with a vast and viable hydro potential for power generation of which only 15% has been harnessed so far. The share of hydropower in the country's total generated units has steadily decreased and it presently stands at 25%. It is assessed that exploitable potential at 60% load factor is 84,000 MW.
At 60 % load factor, this translates into 84,000 MW. Present installed capacity 27,000 MW 25 % share of installed capacity for electricity.
Small hydro power scenario :
The concept of small hydro power plants or Micro Hydel systems is much more promising in a country like India. Many of the problems associated with large hydel plants such as large capital, long gestation period etc. could be avoided and they could offer cheap power locally even at remote areas,
- Hydro power based generation based on plants of capacity 25 MW or less
- More socially, environmentally and economically viable
- Estimates of MNES place the potential at 15,000 MW
- Beneficial for rural electrification, as most of the potential sites are in rural areas
- MNES has identified about 4500 such sites in India
- Cost of small hydro plant half that of a thermal plant.
- India is the fifth largest wind power producer in the world with a capacity of 6171 MW
- Gross wind energy potential : 45,000 MW.
- Technical potential : 20000 MW. States with high potential : Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra State-of-the-art wind power technologies are indigenously available in India.
- Capital cost of wind power projects ranges from Rs . 45-55 crore/MW and the cost of generation is estimated to be Rs . 2.25-2.75 / kWh.
- These costs compare favourably with new conventional projects. There is an added advantage of shorter gestation period.
- These costs are expected to decline and profitability increases with technology improvements.
- Alternatives available for transportation needs are hydrogen based fuels, electrically powered vehicle and Bio-fuels, or may be gaseous fuels.
- Hydrogen fuels in preliminary stages of development, and will take another decade to develop
- But no surplus oil seeds available for bio-fuels. In this case, Jatropha seems to be a viable alternative. Jatropha can survive almost any kind of soil, needs minimal input and propagation is easy. Starts yield from 3rd year onwards.
- Phase one of Jatropha plantation started, emphasis on Jatropha plantation on 4 lakhs acres of land.
- India has 60 million Hactres wasteland, and 30 million of that is suitable for Jatropha Plantation.