Haryana units take to captive power

Biomass gasification plants are being set up to tide over the power shortage.

To tide over the power shortage, the small and medium entrepreneurs in Haryana are opting for the setting up of captive power plants using renewable sources. Units in Haryana are aggressively setting up biomass gasification technology applications to meet their power requirements.

A unit of captive power from diesel gensets costs about Rs 12, while a unit produced using biomass gasification costs about Rs 5, depending on the transportation cost of the raw material, biomass. Of course, captive power costs more as compared to the power provided by the state electricity department. But the fact that the state utilites have been unable to to supply consistent and adequate power to industrial does make investing in captive power seem a reasonable bet.

The average power supply to the industry is 6-8 hours daily. This falls even lower in summers. The state generates about 5,000 Mw against the demand of over 9,000 Mw.

The units in Yamunanagar (Chanderpur Works, Hari Metal Industries, S D Udyog), Sonepat (Lamba Foods Products, KC Spinners Ltd, under instalation), Karnal (Maxrich Foods Private Ltd, Shiva Shakti Food Products, Sirsa, Zenith Energy Ltd Hansi are some of the industries which have installed captive power plants of between 100 Kw and 600 Kw.

A 100 Kw captive power plant costs around Rs 9 lakh. The capital subsidy from the central government for various categories is available from Rs 2.50 lakh/100 Kw to Rs 20 Lakh/Mw and limited to a maximum capacity of 5 Mw irrespective of the instaled capacity of the project. The land required is about 250 square metre.

Biomass gasification means conversion of solid fuels (wood, wood waste, agricultural residue) into a combustible gas mixture called producer gas. It is achieved through partial combustion. Partial combustion occurs when air supply (oxygen) is less than adequate for biomass combustion. During partial combustion, combustible gases like carbon monoxide and hydrogen. This is done in a system known as Biomass gasifier. Using gasifier, a litre of oil can be saved through the use of either 3.5-4 kg of wood or up to 5 kg of rice husk.

All the entrepreneurs are happy with the breakthrough technology. "We have indeed raised our margin by using this technology as we were forced to use diesel for power to make optimum utilisation of our assets. We also got rid of erratic power cuts,” says an entrepreneur.

Some units like Maxrich Foods (P) Ltd of Karnal have applied for another plant of same capacity. The first project in the state came up in Haryana was Chanderpur Works, Yamunanagar in 2004-05.

An official in HAREDA (Haryana Renewable Development Agency) said they have been organising seminars to apprise SMEs of the benefits of biomass gasification technology application programme. The only limitation of this technique is that those who are away from the source of biomass may find it unviable. But in most parts of Haryana, it is easily available.