Industrial Automation Magazine India

Ensuring energy security, sustainability and affordability is an equally important aspect

Published on : Friday 16-02-2024

Manish Kumar Srivastava, Executive Director – Engineering, NTPC Limited.

What emerging technologies show the most promise for decarbonising energy production and consumption? How can innovation and research be accelerated to advance clean energy technologies?

As the global community faces the urgent need to decarbonise energy production and consumption, emerging technologies play a pivotal role in driving sustainable solutions. Several innovative approaches show great promise in achieving cleaner and more efficient energy systems.

 

Promising Technologies

1. Renewable Energy Sources: Solar and wind power are key players in decarbonising energy production. Ongoing advancements in photovoltaic technology, concentrated solar technology, and wind turbine efficiency contribute to increased energy output and cost-effectiveness.

2. Energy Storage: Breakthroughs in energy storage technologies, such as advanced batteries, mechanical energy storage systems, and grid-scale storage solutions, enhance the reliability of renewable sources and thermal power sources. This allows for the efficient use of clean energy, mitigating the intermittent nature of renewables.

3. Advanced Nuclear: Next-generation nuclear technologies, including small modular reactors (SMRs) and advanced fission designs, offer safer and more sustainable alternatives to traditional nuclear power. These innovations address concerns related to safety, waste management, and proliferation.

4. Smart Grids: Implementing intelligent, interconnected grids facilitates real-time monitoring, demand response, and optimised energy distribution. Smart grids improve overall efficiency and enable the integration of diverse energy sources into the existing infrastructure.

5. Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS): CCUS technologies capture carbon dioxide emissions from industrial processes and power plants, preventing them from entering the atmosphere. Additionally, the captured CO2 can be utilised in various applications, such as synthetic fuel production, methanol synthesis as being done in NTPC Vindhyachal, etc.

6. Alternate Fuels: Switching to alternative fuel sources such as methanol, hydrogen, and ammonia, instead of relying on coal and natural gas, presents a viable alternative for decarbonising the energy production.

 

Accelerating Innovation and Research

1. Public-Private Partnerships: Foster collaboration between governments, research institutions, and private sector entities. Establishing joint initiatives can pool resources, expertise, and funding to accelerate research and development in clean energy technologies.

2. Investment Incentives: Governments can provide financial incentives, tax breaks, and subsidies to encourage private investment in clean energy research. This can stimulate innovation by reducing the financial risks associated with developing and implementing emerging technologies.

3. Regulatory Support: Streamline regulatory processes to facilitate the faster deployment of new technologies. Creating a supportive regulatory environment encourages innovation and ensures that emerging clean energy solutions can be implemented without unnecessary delays.

4. International Collaboration: Encourage global cooperation on clean energy research to share knowledge, resources, and best practices. International collaboration can expedite progress by leveraging the strengths of diverse regions and promoting a collective approach to addressing climate challenges. Decarbonising energy production and consumption is a global imperative. By prioritising and accelerating research in renewable energy, energy storage, advanced nuclear, smart grids, alternate fuels, and carbon capture, coupled with strategic collaborative efforts and supportive policies, we can usher in a new era of sustainable, clean energy solutions. This multifaceted approach ensures that innovation becomes a driving force in mitigating climate change and building a greener, more resilient future.

How can existing energy infrastructure be adapted or replaced to support decarbonisation? Energy transition is a journey rather than a destination. The transition is not going to happen tomorrow. It will not take just one or two years to get there, but two to three decades. India has one of the youngest energy fleets in the world. Therefore, maintaining efficiency and reducing emissions from the existing infrastructure is going to play a key role in India’s path towards Net Zero Emissions (NZE).

For a country like India, where per capita energy consumption is a fraction of the global average, ensuring energy security, sustainability and affordability is an equally important aspect. Meeting the energy needs of underprivileged populations with safe and sustainable energy access is the first and foremost consideration in India. Therefore, a comprehensive road map with a focus on the available resources and challenges for the Indian scenario is required for achieving the country's Net Zero commitments in a graded manner following a transition path.

For example, with abundant coal reserves in India, relatively lower average age of the coal fleet, challenges of variable renewable energy integration, limited techno-economic energy storage solutions, etc., coal-based power plants shall have an important role for providing reliable, sustainable, affordable power and meeting Indian electricity demand in future. Hence, decarbonising the coal-based plants apart from addition of renewables in the grid shall play a crucial role for achieving the COP26 commitments. Initially, decarbonisation with use of high efficiency and low emission (HELE) USC technology, 20% biomass firing, and 20% carbon capture can bring the emissions to the level of a gas power plant, thereby providing a path for future transition to NZE. Further, with the advancement in technologies, additionally increasing the carbon capture above 90% and integration of Small Module Reactors (SMR) in coal-based power plants has a potential to result in net negative CO2 emissions, effectively removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Also, the dispatchable thermal plants can provide the required flexible operation according to the variation in output of the renewables. Therefore, with improvement in technologies, fossil-fuel based plants have the potential to remain an integral part of the Indian grid even in the NZE era.

Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) is expected to play a key role in hard to abate sectors such as steel and cement industry where fossil fuels are likely to continue their presence. Similarly, for the transport sector, utilisation of low carbon fuels (methanol, ethanol, etc.), produced through carbon capture during the transition phase can help in utilisation of the existing internal combustion engines and reduction of emissions till the development of a sustainable ecosystem for EVs and FCEVs.

India needs to build a ‘Business Model’ which achieves ‘NZE targets’, improves ‘Energy Security’, cuts down on ‘Import Bill’ while leveraging the national treasure of ‘Available Resources in India’ and utilising the ‘Existing Infrastructure’ where investment has already been made.

 

(The views expressed in interviews are personal, not necessarily of the organisations represented.)

Manish Kumar Srivastava continues to be associated with NTPC Limited for over three and a half decades now. He served as Executive Director (IT) and Chief General Manager (Kawas Gas Project & Shared Services Centre, Western Region -1) before assuming the responsibility of Executive Director (Engineering) at NTPC Ltd. With an illustrious experience of holding a spectrum of significant decision-making positions throughout his tenure, he is a well known stature among the elitist brass of NTPC technocrats.

Shri Srivastava played a pivotal role in the Engineering of majority of NTPC’s Coal based Thermal Power Plants, Gas based Combined Cycle Power Plants and Hydro Power Plants. He spearheaded the development of new guidelines, policies & procedures in C&I Engineering and IT and is credited with the success of new bidding processes in NTPC. He has also been associated in the commissioning of several C&I systems at site. He has contributed immensely in the development of Integrated Monitoring system for Bottom Ash Evacuation, Intelligent cable engineering and ICS software for which several copyrights have been obtained by NTPC.

Under his tutelage and direction, many new initiatives, viz., Digitalisation in Power Plants, Complete Water Management, etc., have been undertaken. Shri Srivastava has authored papers for National & International conferences including the International Society of Automation (ISA) POWID division. He also served as the President of International Society of Automation, Delhi Section, District-14 in 2018-19 and continues to be a senior leader and patron.

Shri Srivastava is an alumni of NIT, Surat from where he completed his B.E in Control & Instrumentation and has pursued Management lessons at University of Harvard, Boston. He is highly acknowledged as an ardent learner constantly looking forward to adopting and taking advantage of the latest technology for his esteemed organisation. He is also widely recognised for his approach, as a true believer in developing technology partners rather than just suppliers.