India to use underutilised gas-fired power capacity to meet peak demand
16 Aug 2018
India plans to operate its gas-fired power plants for balancing the grid flows by maintaining uninterrupted electricity supply. These underutilised natural gas-fired power generators will act as “peaker” plants that can switch on quickly when there’s high demand, according to the country’s power sector regulator.
The plan is to initially run four NTPC plants with a combined capacity of 2.3 gigawatts that in the evenings when demand peaks, Central Electricity Authority chairman Pankaj Batra said in New Delhi.
The agency envisions 20 gigawatts of gas-fired capacity being used as peaking stations to even out supply fluctuations from the large amount of renewable energy that’s set to be built by 2022, he said.
“The government will start testing the plan this month by operating one of NTPC’s gas-based power plants as a peaking station” for nearly four hours in the evening, Batra said in an interview last week, adding that the three other plants will be added by the end of the year. State-owned GAIL India Ltd. has agreed to supply gas to the four plants, he said.
The gas-based capacity is expected to make up for shortfalls in its ambitious goal of installing 175 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2022, which is part of its Paris climate pledge to cut carbon emissions.
Gas-fired power plants can play a role balancing the grid by maintaining uninterrupted electricity supply, especially when solar-fired generation fails to come up by then.
A shortage of gas has left a fifth of India’s 25 gigawatts gas-fired capacity unutilised, according to CEA data. The cost of gas imports for India makes the fuel uncompetitive with other sources of power generation.