Captive Power
Projects
Power intensive
industries such as cement, textiles and fertilisers started setting
up captive power projects mainly as a back-up source of power to
protect themselves against unreliable grid power. With increasing
irregularity of grid power, industries started using captive power
as a full-time source of power. Captive power proved to be more
reliable and over a longer run, even cheaper than power provided by
the SEB.
|
Industry
|
%Share
|
|
Cement
|
18
|
|
Chemicals
|
15
|
|
Electronics
|
0
|
|
Engineering
|
14
|
|
Jute
|
3
|
|
Metals &
Minerals
|
7
|
|
Miscellaneous
|
12
|
|
Paper
|
2
|
|
Services
|
2
|
|
Sugar
|
2
|
|
Textile
|
13
|
|
Unclassified
|
10
|
|
All India
|
100
|
The cost of
captively generated power on an average works out to Rs2.75-3.0 per
unit. Captive plants predominantly use DG sets. But large captive
projects like the 720MW plant of Hindalco at Renusagar are based on
coal. The Jindal plant at Bellary uses corex gas which is a
by-product of steel manufacturing. The power plant of Rain
Calcining uses flue gases generated from the manufacture of CPC as
the fuel. SAIL's captive power plants at Bhilai, Bokaro, Rourkela
and Durgapur are coal-based.
With a rise in
diesel prices on the anvil, there is an apprehension that captive
power projects will become unviable vis-à-vis grid projects.
However, as long as grid power remains irregular and unreliable,
captive projects are expected to continue to be in
vogue.
Some states,
especially those which are power surplus, are of late discouraging
captive plants. This has been a setback for captive power plans of
companies.
