'Power sector facing shortage of service providers'

India’s power sector is expected to grow at 10 per cent and is currently going through a critical phase as the existing capacity is aging very fast, according to NN Mishra, director (operations), NTPC Limited.

Speaking at a three-day power plant summit 2011 here, he said the sector was predominantly dominated by thermal power plants, whose share was expected to rise up to 75 per cent from the current 64 per cent in the coming years. “With the growth of the thermal power generation in the country, the addition of captive power plants in steel, cement, aluminum and other energy intensive industries would continue to grow,” he added.

NTPC is positive about meeting its coal requirement of 160 million tonne annually up to 2011-13. “After 2013, there might be some shortage due to capacity addition. So we have already planned to face the crisis,” he added. The company would develop its own mines as it would be cheaper than going for imports.

“We will develop the coal mines out of the six which were awarded to us and one will be a joint venture,” he added.

After the recent disaster in Japan, the preference would now be to shift back to coal-based thermal power plant projects.

According to a study on the Indian coal-based power sector by the US Agency for International Development (US AID), the sector is facing an acute shortage of service providers mainly catering to the operational and maintenance needs. “Many of the local players are keen on partnering with international players to bring the best of services,” said Jeremy Gustafson, director, US AID.

Scott Smouse, senior management and technical adviser, US Department of Energy (US DoE), said qualified service providers were required in the country to meet the operational and maintenance needs of the existing and new plants for the future.

According to a recent study by the Central Electricity Authority, most of country’s existing power plants are running at lower operating efficiency. Hence, the government is working on developing a PAT (perform, achieve and trade) scheme, which would monitor their efficiency.

“We are already looking to implement advanced ultra super critical power plants,” Mishra said.

The current focus is to make the service providers network available at a cheaper cost and quickly. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), energy efficiency, cost and environmental issues are some of the problems facing the power sector.

The summit, being organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII)-Godrej Green Building Centre, in association with US AID and US DoE, will focus on making Indian thermal power plants world-class and on developing service provider network.