Page 8 - AsiaElec Week 35

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India expands gas infrastructure, mulls LNG price review
INDIA
INDIA’S e orts to spur consumption of natural gas is helping to attract billions in investment, but a growing reliance on foreign supplies is driving the government to review its long-term import contracts.
INR5tn ($69.95bn) is being invested in boost- ing the country’s gas sector, Minister of Petro- leum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said at an industry event on August 26. He noted the money was going to upstream developments, city gas distribution (CGD) projects and build- ing new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facilities.
Pradhan predicted that domestic gas produc- tion would expand from 32.87bn cubic metres in financial year 2018-2019 to 39.3 bcm by 2020-2021. is will help feed a rapidly growing demand for the fuel, driven by a government tar- get to increase gas’ share of the primary energy mix to 15%.
With demand growth outpacing that of pro- duction, however, India has become increas- ingly reliant on foreign supplies and Pradhan projected that LNG import capacity would grow from 38.8mn tonnes per year to 52.5mn tpy within the next three to four years.
While he said long-term LNG import con- tracts had been signed, the minister noted that the government would seek to review the pricing structure of these deals.
“Long-term contracts are supposed to be honoured. We will look at an appropriate time [to review]. In the past also we had renegotiated the deals,” Pradhan said, referring to supply deals his government had previously renegotiated with Qatar, Australia and Russia.
His comments come at a time of persistently low prices for spot cargoes into Asia. Prices at the start of August dipped below $4 per mil- lion British thermal units ($110.64 per 1,000 cubic metres) for the rst time in several years. Although they have since regained ground, with cargoes for October delivery reportedly com- manding $4.70 per mmBtu ($130 per 1,000 cubic metres), this is still a far cry from the $11.40 per mmBtu ($315.32 per 1,000 cubic metres) seen a year ago.
In addition to India’s upstream and import investments, the country is also in the midst of a major expansion of its gas pipeline network, working to add 14,788km further lines to the current 16,788km of the operational grid.™
RENEWABLES
Vietnam aims for 2,000MW of rooftop solar
VIETNAM
VIETNAM aims to have 2,000MW of roo op solar capacity by the end of 2020, the country’s state-owned utility EVN said.
The company said that current rooftop capacity stood at 200MW at 4,000 households. It estimated that an additional 300MW of roof- top solar power will be added by the end of 2019, with the rate of addition rising to 1,500MW in 2020. It said that the development of renewable energy infrastructure, including roo op solar power, was crucial to delivering enough power to Vietnam’s growing population and providing energy security on a national scale.
Elsewhere in the renewables sector, Vietnam had 89 wind and solar power plants with a com- bined capacity of 5,038MW at the end of June 2019,, accounting for 9.5% of the country’s total capacity.
e government expects that 1,000MW of green capacity will be connected to the national grid by the end of 2019, helping to ease power shortages.
Vo Quang Lam, EVN’s deputy general direc- tor, told the recent Vietnam Energy Forum 2019
that developing roo op solar power would help reduce transmission costs and price pressure as well as increase energy use e ciency.
Rooftop solar will be able to form part of locally based mini-grids, either providing power without needing access to the national transmis- sion system, or feeding in power as and when required.
Vietnam currently applies a feed-in tariff (FiT) of $0.935 per kWh for roo op solar power project connected to the grid.
e Ministry of Industry and Trade has pro- posed maintaining this subsidy until 2021 to encourage the development of solar power.
To do this, improved technical solutions are being developed to connect solar power to the national grid, while investment-friendly policies and mechanisms are being developed by the reg- ulator, the ministry said,
e country’s central and southern regions have the greatest potential to develop roo op solar systems, with solar radiation levels of up to 4.2-4.8kWh per square metre per day, according to government gures.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 35 03 •September•2019