VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh is all set to become a pioneer in the field of renewable energy in the country, said New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of AP (NREDCAP) Vice-Chairman and Managing Director S Ramana Reddy. Speaking to TNIE, he said AP is at the forefront of renewable energy promotion and has taken several initiatives for decarbonisation.
The State government has rolled out the AP Renewable Energy Export Policy 2020, the AP Pumped Storage Power Promotion Policy 2022 and the AP Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia Policy 2023 with an objective to increase green hydrogen production to the capacity of 0.5 MTPA (Million Tonnes Per Annum) or green ammonia production to the capacity of 2.0 MTPA in the next five years by harnessing the renewable energy potential fully.
The initiatives aim at attracting investments, providing employment and improving the economy of the State. This will ensure the generation of 12,000 jobs per MTPA production of green hydrogen in the State, he explained.
The NREDCAP VC attributed the success of the energy-efficient policies rolled out by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to the effective supervision of Minister for Energy Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy. While lauding the initiatives of AP for PSP promotion, MAKP Singh, Member (Hydro), Central Electricity Authority, has advised other States to follow the model of Andhra Pradesh, he highlighted.
“NREDCAP as the nodal agency is identifying PSP sites and preparing DPRs and giving approved DPRs duly getting all the required clearances from different agencies so that the developer’s risk and time is minimised and the developer is able to take investment decisions. This approach helps in the development of PSP in the least possible time. So far, FRs/DPRs have been submitted for 21 projects with an aggregate PSP capacity of 21,250 MW. Private developers from AP have also directly submitted FR/DPRs for two PSP projects of 3480 MW capacity, he.
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has prepared the National Electricity Plan 2023 duly involving all the stakeholders and evolved plans for developing required transmission capacity. Five nodes have been created considering the five regions with inter regional transmission links between them for inter-regional power transfer. In Andhra Pradesh, 52 GW of transmission capacity will be created as per 500 GW RE plan released by CEA, he highlighted.
In what is termed to be a game changer in stabilising the grid, the State has laid emphasis on Pumped Hydro Storage plants. As the share of renewable energy to the grid increases, there is a higher chance of the grid becoming unstable due to the inherent disadvantages of renewable energy. Both of them are unpredictable and intermittent in nature and as such, are not completely reliable at a stretch which means, total dependence on these sources may contribute negatively to the grid’s stability.
In order to overcome these disadvantages, the grid needs a reliable fallback arrangement to compensate for the variability of wind and solar power and to store excess or unusable energy from renewable sources, and therefore allow for better integration of these types of renewable energy into the grid, he elaborated.