With a constructive coverage impetus, Andhra Pradesh has been actively selling the adoption of renewables. Presently, photo voltaic and wind energy dominate the entire put in renewable vitality capability within the state. Going ahead, the state authorities goals to leverage its important pumped hydro, inexperienced hydrogen and inexperienced ammonia potential, with insurance policies for these segments already introduced. At Renewable Watch’s twenty first Annual Convention on Hydro Energy in India, Ramana Reddy, vice-chairman and managing director, New & Renewable Power Growth Company of Andhra Pradesh (NREDCAP), mentioned the present state of renewable vitality deployment, the important thing insurance policies driving the adoption of renewables, and the potential and progress of pumped storage tasks (PSPs) within the state. Edited excerpts…
Andhra Pradesh is on the forefront of selling renewable vitality. As of December 2023, the state’s complete put in renewable vitality capability stands at 9,391.95 MW, comprising 4,565.60 MW of photo voltaic, 4,096.65 MW of wind, 566.39 MW of biopower and 163.31 MW of small-hydropower capability. The whole photo voltaic capability is additional divided into 4,297.27 MW of ground-mounted photo voltaic, 179.99 MW of rooftop photo voltaic and 88.34 MW of off-grid/KUSUM elements. Implywhereas, the entire biopower capability contains 378.10 MW, 105.57 MW, 53.16 MW and 29.56 MW of biomass energy/baggase cogeneration, biomass cogeneration (non-baggase), waste-to-energy (WtE) and WtE (off-grid) elements, respectively. The state goals so as to add one other 9 GW of photo voltaic capability in just a few years to satisfy the agricultural demand, significantly to produce 9 hours of energy to farmers. Actually, to satisfy the agriculture sector’s demand, the state has arrange a devoted distribution firm.
Coverage initiatives
A number of coverage initiatives are driving the uptake of renewables in Andhra Pradesh. These embrace the Andhra Pradesh Renewable Power Export Energy Coverage 2020 to advertise large-scale renewable tasks for exporting energy to different states by allocating lands in potential renewable vitality zones; the Andhra Pradesh Pumped Storage Hydro Energy Promotion Coverage 2022, geared toward selling PSPs; and the Andhra Pradesh Inexperienced Hydrogen and Inexperienced Ammonia Coverage 2023 to encourage personal investments in inexperienced hydrogen tasks. The state has set a goal to realize a manufacturing capability of 0.5 million tonnes each year (mtpa) of inexperienced hydrogen and a couple of mtpa of inexperienced ammonia within the subsequent 5 years.
The Andhra Pradesh Renewable Power Export Energy Coverage 2020 focuses on selling large-scale renewable energy tasks for export of energy to different states, exempting distribution corporations within the state from the duty to obtain energy. Andhra Pradesh has large uncultivable lands in potential renewable vitality zones. Beneath the Renewable Power Export Coverage, un-cultivatable land shall be acquired from farmers by paying lease leases of Rs 31,000 per acre per 12 months with an escalation of 5 per cent each two years. This provision will incentivise farmers to supply their lands for establishing renewable vitality tasks.
NREDCAP, appearing because the state nodal company for the promotion of renewable vitality tasks within the state, will function a land aggregator for these tasks. The facility generated from these tasks shall be injected into Central Transmission Utility of India Restricted.
Pumped hydro standing in Andhra Pradesh
Pumped hydroelectric storage (PHS) is presently one of the crucial broadly used types of vitality storage. PHS accounted for over 90 per cent of the world’s electrical energy storage at roughly 8,500 GWh in 2020. In response to the Worldwide Power Company, the entire put in PHS capability worldwide was round 160 GW in 2021, making it essentially the most broadly deployed grid-scale storage expertise. As per the Central Electrical energy Company (CEA), the entire vitality storage requirement in India is projected to succeed in 73.93 GW by 2030. As well as, Andhra Pradesh is actively selling large-scale PSPs. The whole PSP potential recognized in Andhra Pradesh is 42.02 GW throughout 49 tasks. Of this, the Andhra Pradesh authorities has allotted 16.18 GW of PSPs to builders.
As of December 21, 2023, eight tasks (4,745.60 MW) are operational in India, 4 tasks (3,260 MW) are beneath building, detailed mission report (DPR) concurrence has been granted by the CEA to 2 tasks (2,350 MW) and 47 tasks (59,357 MW) are beneath survey and investigations. Of the above 61 tasks, 23 (26,050 MW) tasks are from Andhra Pradesh.
PSPs are concentrated in many alternative places throughout the state. Within the northern a part of the state, close to the Odisha border, there’s substantial PSP potential. In the meantime, the Penna river basin within the south holds greater than 17-18 GW of PSP potential, with a number of PSPs recognized. DPRs for greater than 9 GW of PSP capability are within the finalisation stage. In the meantime, construction has already begun in 4 totally different places. Two of those PSPs are being developed by Adani Inexperienced Power Restricted, the five hundred MW Chitravathi PSP in Sri Sathya Sai district and the 1,000 MW Gandikota PSP in YSR district.
The opposite two tasks are being developed by Indosol Photo voltaic Personal Restricted. The corporate is creating the large 2,200 MW Paidipalem PSP in YSR district as an built-in mission. Two tasks are arising on this area – the 1,000 MW Paidipalem North and the 1,200 MW Paidipalem East tasks. The vitality generated from these tasks shall be used to satisfy the captive necessities of the photo voltaic module producer.
Shirdi Sai Electricals Restricted is creating the 900 MW Somasila PSP mission in YSR district. The mission web site needed to be relocated because it was earlier within the neighborhood of a wildlife sanctuary, which may have led to issues in getting well timed approvals.
In the meantime, DPR preparation for the 800 MW Singanamala PSP is beneath superior phases. The mission shall be arrange in Ananthapuramu district, and environmental and forest clearances are underway for this mission. It’s being developed by Aurobindo Realty and Infrastructure Personal Restricted. One of many key hurdles for these tasks is the lengthy ready time for getting forest clearances. Even geotechnical investigations for these tasks take a very long time. NREDCAP has taken steps to handle this challenge and make the approval course of simpler for builders. One other mission being developed by the identical developer is the 800 MW Owk PSP in Nandyal district, for which the DPR is sort of accomplished.
NHPC Restricted and Andhra Pradesh Energy Era Company Restricted (APGENCO) are collectively creating the 950 MW Kamalapadu PSP in Ananthapuramu district and the 1,000 MW Yaganti PSP in Nandyal district. Lately, NHPC shaped a three way partnership with APGENCO for the event of 4-5 GW of PSPs in Andhra Pradesh.
Aside from PSPs, Andhra Pradesh is specializing in the large-scale adoption of inexperienced hydrogen tasks, which require 24×7 renewable energy provide. The state’s renewable vitality export energy coverage facilitates the allocation of land on long-term leases to builders in potential renewable vitality zones for establishing renewable vitality tasks, with the generated energy out there for export.
Additional, substantial PSP capability is arising within the state to supply round the clock renewable energy for inexperienced hydrogen tasks. Built-in renewable vitality tasks are already being arrange by builders. As an illustration, Greenko is establishing the Pinnapuram mission, which features a PSP in addition to photo voltaic and wind energy tasks, and the mission is scheduled to start operations from April-Could 2024 onwards.
On account of these developments, many builders have expressed curiosity in establishing inexperienced hydrogen tasks within the coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh. A number of the inexperienced hydrogen could be utilised throughout the home market by metal, fertiliser and different industries and the remaining could be exported.
