News Analysis India

Tag: power ministry

  • India installs 678 public EV charging stations in the last four months: Power ministry

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: India’s effort to expand public electric vehicles charging infrastructure gave a quick result as the country witnessed a 2.5 times growth in charging stations in nine mega cities in the last four months. It had installed 678 public EV charging stations between October 2021 to January 2022 in Surat, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai.

     “The Government has made 360-degree efforts to enhance public charging infrastructure by involving private and public agencies (BEE, EESL, PGCIL, NTPC, etc.). Many private organisations have also come forward to install EV charging stations to develop a convenient charging network grid to gain consumers’ confidence,” said the power ministry in a statement.

    To boost the electric vehicle infrastructure in the country, the power ministry revised its guidelines in January. It includes providing an affordable tariff chargeable by public EV charging station operators, enable owners of electric vehicles to charge EVs at their residences using their existing electricity connections. A revenue sharing model has been suggested for land use to make a public charging station financially viable from an operational perspective and technical requirements for public charging stations have been elaborated.

    The Oil Marketing Companies have announced the setting up of 22,000 EV charging stations in prominent cities and on national highways across the country. Out of 22,000 EV charging stations, 10,000 will be installed by IOCL, 7,000 will be installed by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL), and the rest of 5,000 will be installed by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (HPCL). IOCL has already installed 439 EV charging stations and plans to install another 2,000 EV charging stations over the next year. BPCL has installed 52 charging stations, while HPCL has installed 382 charging stations.

  • Power Ministry decides to set up National Mission on use of biomass in coal based thermal power plants

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: In order to address the issue of air pollution due to farm stubble burning and to reduce carbon footprints of thermal power generation, the Ministry of Power on Tuesday decided to set up a National Mission on use of biomass in coal-based thermal power plants.

    The ministry said this would further support the energy transition in the country and our targets to move towards cleaner energy sources.

    According to the Ministry of Power, the objective of the “National Mission on use of biomass in thermal power plants” will be to increase the level of co-firing from the present 5 per cent to higher levels to have a larger share of carbon-neutral power generation from the thermal power plants, to take up R&D activity in boiler design to handle the higher amount of silica, alkalis in the biomass pellets, to facilitate overcoming the constraints in the supply chain of biomass pellets and agro-residue and its transport upto to the power plants and to consider regulatory issues in biomass co-firing.

    “The modalities of operation and structure of the Nation Mission are under finalization. It is being envisaged that the Mission would have a Steering Committee headed by Secretary (Power) comprising of all stakeholders including representatives from Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG), Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE), etc.,” it said.

    It further said the Executive Committee would be headed by Member (Thermal), CEA. NTPC will play a larger role in providing logistic and infrastructure support in the proposed National Mission.

    “The Mission would have full-time officers from CEA, NTPC, DVC and NLC or other participating organizations. The duration of the proposed National Mission would be a minimum of 5 years,” it added.

    The ministry has also formed five Sub-Groups under the Mission.

    Sub-Group 1 will be responsible to carry out research on properties/ characteristics of biomass, Sub-Group 2 will carry out technical specification and safety aspects including research in boiler design, etc. to handle the pilot project for the higher amount of co-firing of biomass with coal in pulverized coal (PC) fired boilers.

    Furthermore, Sub-Group 3 is for resolving the issues of the supply chain during the mission period and sensitization programme, Sub-Group 4 to select designated labs and certification bodies for the testing of agro-based biomass pellets and Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) pellets and Sub-Group 5 will be formed on regulatory framework and economics of biomass co-firing in coal-based thermal power plants.

    The proposed National Mission on biomass will also contribute in the National Clean Air Programme.