Coal will continue to play a major role in electricity supply till 2047: NLC India CMD

DH INTERVIEW

Bengaluru: Even as India makes rapid strides towards renewable energy generation to achieve its net zero target by 2070, far from starting a disengagement with fossil fuel, it is getting more invested in coal to power the country. Against this backdrop, chairman and managing director of public sector undertaking NLC India, Prasanna Kumar Motupalli, took DH’s Shakshi Jain through the future power roadmap of the country, the challenges ahead and the Navratna company’s own plans going forward.

Edited excerpts.

Elaborate on the progress and future plans for your facilities in Talabira, Odisha.

The mine and production activities are going on at Talabira II and III. Last year, the target was 8 million metric tonnes, we produced 10 million. This year although our main plant target is 12 million metric tonnes, we’re hopeful about achieving 14 million metric tonnes.  

About the Talabira thermal power plant, we’ve tendered for 3 X 800 MW. The land acquisition process is on. Things are moving very fast. There is full support from the state government as well as the Ministry of Coal. The main power plant will come up in 880 acres. By December we want to award this contract and start the activities. Minimum construction time is 36 months after which we will be commissioning the units. The capex requirement is Rs 19,600 crore for the entire project.

The power purchase agreements for the entire 2,400 MW have been signed with Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and Odisha.

Demand for power is increasing year-on-year and so is our engagement with coal. How long do you see the Indian power scene tied to this fossil fuel?

As of date, the power requirement in the country is growing at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of almost 8-9 per cent. It is going to further increase in the future. Earlier it was thought that once we have renewables, we can completely phase out thermal capacity. But with the last two energy crises, it is evident that along with renewable energy, thermal capacity will continue to play a major role in the electricity supply. In the 2030 and even 2047 projections, coal and lignite continue to play a dominant role. So NLC is following a balanced approach of aggressively adding renewal capacity and at the same time adding coal and lignite based capacity. 

Net zero target is 2070. But net zero does not mean coal zero. With coal generation also we can achieve net zero, of course that is somewhat costly. India has huge reserves of coal - almost 130 billion metric tonnes. With the rate at which we’re exploiting, there are reserves for almost 100 years. We have to use all natural resources to the possible extent to ensure that power reaches all 24x7. 

What is your roadmap for renewables?

On the renewable front, we’re targeting to become a 6 GW-plus company by 2030. We already have 2 GW projects in hand -  we won 500 MW in a CPSU scheme. Another 200 MW in Gujarat, the power from which we will be supplying to Telangana. Apart from that we won 600 MW in Gujarat for solar power. After that we won 810 MW in Rajasthan’s Bikaner.

We’re forming a joint venture with the government of Assam for installing 1,000 MW of renewable capacity. That is in the advanced state of formation. 

Elaborate on your diversification plans.

In line with the Prime Minister’s call for 100 million tonnes of gasification by 2030 and to reduce the input burden of states, we’re going for a lignite-to-methanol project of 1,200 metric tonnes capacity per day, with a capex of Rs 4,500 crore. After seeing the output of this project we will expand our lignite-to-methanol diversification capacity. This project is in the tendering stage - it is tendered in two blocks. For one block bid is open. Land for this is already available in Neyveli (Tamil Nadu).

Second is converting overburden to construction sand. Already one project is awarded and other projects are in the planning stage. Once all the projects are awarded, we will be in a position to supply 2.53 million metric tonnes of sand to the construction industry per year.

What in your opinion is the top challenge for renewable energy expansion in India? 

We’re targeting 500 GW of capacity addition by 2030 and capacity is being added aggressively by different companies. I’m hopeful that we will reach the target before 2030. The only challenge is storage capacity. You cannot feed this to the grid on a continuous basis. So, along with renewable capacity, storage capacity, be it battery or pumped storage, also needs to be added for continuity of supply.