Amid reports of coal shortage and power cuts in the country, state-run power company NTPC Chairman and Managing Director Gurdeep Singh on June 22 said that coal-based power generation is the backbone of power supply and similarly for power supply. is going to live. next two to three decades.
Singh, who was participating in a panel discussion at the BloombergNEF summit in the national capital, was of the view that instead of talking about phasing out coal-based thermal power plants, India needs to focus on dispatchable renewable energy.
“Why are people so much concerned about coal? Today we are supplying three-fourth of our electricity from coal-based plants. These are the backbone of coal-based power plants (power supply or baseload in the country),” he said.
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“We need to look at how to reduce coal-based generation instead of phasing out or phasing out coal-fired power plants. Let’s talk about that now. It is too early to talk about that. Hogi (phasing out coal based plants) I think coal (electricity based) it is going to be there for two to three decades.”
Meanwhile, India has set a target of achieving 500 GW of renewable energy by 2030.
Among other things, the NTPC chief said that the country needs to make this renewable energy dispatchable and reliable. But, he stressed more on the importance of making electricity affordable and reliable 24X7 on demand by the consumers. “My concern is that we may have to start new coal-fired power plants to meet the requirement,” Singh said.
To help reduce the consumption of fossil fuel-based electricity, Singh suggested that affordable solar and wind power could complement coal-based thermal power during the day.
Further, his idea was to set up new efficient and eco-friendly coal based thermal power plants instead of running the old and inefficient ones.
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Apart from these, NTPC MD said that it is important that low cost long term funding is made available in the country to accelerate the development of renewable energy.
State-owned power company NTPC supplies one-fourth of the electricity in India. It is also foraying into hydro, solar and wind power sectors and aims to have 60 GW of renewable energy capacity over the next decade.
With inputs from PTI.