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Gas struggles to gain ground in India’s power sector
Gas is gaining traction as a residential and transportation fuel, but is struggling to compete with low-cost and abundant supplies of coal in the power industry
COMMENTARY
WHAT:
India wants to increase gas consumption to 15% of the energy mix by 2030.
WHY:
The country is the world’s largest emitter of SO2 and gas could help to reduce urban pollution.
WHAT NEXT:
With little political support for gas- red power, coal will remain dominant throughout the next decade.
INDIA has touted natural gas and renewable energy as the answer to mounting urban air pol- lution, but structural ine ciencies within the power sector and a lack of support for gas as a generation feedstock should help coal keep its pole position for years to come.
A new report by Greenpeace has found that India is the world’s largest emitter of anthropo- genic sulphur dioxide (SO2), with more than 50 SO2 emitting hotspots. National emissions amount to 4,586 kilotonnes per year, ahead of Russia’s 3,683 kilotonnes and China’s 2,578 kilotonnes.
Greenpeace senior campaigner Pujarini Sen called the situation an “air pollution emergency”, adding: “ is report makes it clear that we can- not give coal power plants a free hand to continue polluting and keep leading to health emergency situation in India due to air pollution.”
The government has pinned its hopes on diversifying its energy sources, setting a target of expanding gas’ share of the energy mix from 6.2% at present to 15% by 2030. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has also set a tar- get of increasing the country’s renewable energy capacity to 175 GW by 2022.
India is making strides in expanding the country’s gas consumption, with state-run gas utility GAIL (India) unveiling a new ve-year investment plan for the country’s gas grid. However, a continued focus on pushing gas
use within the residential and transportation sectors is doing little to help dethrone coal as the fuel of choice for most new thermal power plants (TPPs).
Infrastructure ramp-up
State-run gas utility GAIL will invest more than INR450bn ($6.29bn) over the next ve years to expand the national gas grid as well as its city gas distribution (CGD) network.
e company is building more than 5,700km of gas pipeline, chairman Ashutosh Karnatak told the company’s annual general meeting on August 20, adding to its existing 11,000km of operational pipeline. GAIL handles around two thirds of the country’s natural gas sales.
Karnatak said INR320bn ($4.47bn) would go towards laying pipeline, with another INR120bn ($1.68bn) earmarked for developing CGD net- works. e company said it was seeking to build 400 compressed natural gas (CNG) stations and deliver 1mn residential piped gas connections over the next ve years.
e company is building a 2,655-km pipeline from Jagdishpur in Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal and Odisha.
“Around 1,050 km of pipeline projects along Varanasi-Dobhi-Patna/Barauni, Aurai- ya-Phulpur and other last-mile connectivity were completed during the 2018-19 scal,” Kar- natak said.
65.0 60.0 55.0 50.0 45.0 40.0 35.0 30.0 25.0 20.0
2010 2011
2012 2013
Production
2014 2015 2016 Consumption
2017 2018
Source: BP
India's gas supply shortfall v
P4
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 33 21•August•2019
bcm per year