What are the future scope of LNG in power sector in India?

LNG is fuel of future and all natural gas based power plants have installed gas turbines. It's working depends upon temperature. Efficiency increases with increase in efficiency. And it is true that coal based plants are at risk because of depleting resources. LNG fuel based plants are more energy efficient than coal based plants. Besides LNG power plant are cheaper too. The main drawback is they LNG power plant huge amount of CO2 but still less than Coal based power plant.

In future, LNG, Electric, Battery and Solar will play a big role. Fuel / Petrol / Diesel etc. will continue its own demand in the market till some more years to come. Oil will continue to dominate for few more years till alternate or module changes overall.

Coal requirement already reduced to an extent. Again, one more main energy source is required for converting water into steam and to get power through the turbine too.

LNG is liquified natural gas and is being transported under low temperature conditions in liquid form from one place to other. It is predominantly methane with some quantity of ethane also. India is going in a big way for using LNG and has already got LNG terminals for re-gassification of imported LNG. These terminals can handle huge amount of LNG and presently India's capacity in this regard is around 25-30 million metric tons. As per Govt plans this capacity is going to double in next 5 years. So the Govt has plans to use LNG in a big way in its energy requirement.

On supply side huge LNG plants are commissioned in US and Australia and the supply is increasing and this has forced the LNG prices down to about $5-6 per mmbtu (btu is a thermal unit) and as per market expectations is going to remain like that for some more years may be with nominal rise in price. This is a good news for countries like India who are going to increase the use of LNG in their overall energy requirement.

Traditionally in our country, we are using mainly coal, oil, gas and nuclear energies. Now solar is also catching up slowly. Govt is envisaging many LNG based power plants in the country due to easy availability of the LNG in global markets. For example NTPC is going to to build 50 MW LNG-fueled power plant in Hope Town, South Andaman.

There is some delay on this account as the LNG power plants are capital intensive and there are some bottlenecks in creating these infra structure at a fast pace. Interestingly, we have already many gas based energy plants which are not in use optimally due to non-availability of cheaper domestic gas. With more LNG import this situation will improve.

There is one threat to LNG everywhere in the world including India that the renewable energy sources like solar, electrical batteries and nuclear are also getting the attention of the Govt and business houses and that is also going to take a considerable share of meeting our energy demands. So the growth in LNG in power sector might not be as lucrative as envisaged at the present juncture.

As across the world, the crude oil market is very volatile and added to that the ongoing shadow war is taking the toll of OPEC members who are likely to further hike the prices thereby many countries want to shift to an alternate source of energy and India is pitching for even electric vehicles for future. But LNG is already in use and many autos are running on this fuel. There seems to be a greater future for the LNG power too as we cannot depend on the thermal and the other sources of energy. The competition would be tight in future for LNG power plants as nuclear power plants are also given a great push, but there would be a surviving phase for this source of energy.

Supply of LNG in India is very less and they are not able to supply the LNG required to the existing industry. That is why around 50% of industries in India designed for power production with LNG are suffering a lot and there is no production activity and they are becoming NPAs. The reasons for this are mainly lack of sufficient quantities of CNG in the country and the import cost is high. This is the information given to Parliament in the year 2018.

Many companies in Andhra Pradesh have come up expecting a supply of gas from KG basin and they are suffering a lot and they are almost closed. Around 4 to 5 industries in this State are not at all working from almost 3 to 4 years.

Coal-based power generation is having its problems and it is a big threat to environment pollution. So slowly they should be stopped and more thrust should be given for gas-based power generation. The central government should make policy and see that CNG will be imported if necessary and should be given to the existing industry and see that they will get revived. Otherwise, it will be a difficult proposition and LNG based power generation industry will become completely sick.

Another problem with these LNG based power generation is the capital requirement is much higher and to get the break-even may take a lot of time. Internationally the rates of LNG have come down. So the government should develop the infrastructure and see that the LNG will be imported and supplied to the industry.

With the said problems the industry is looking for alternatives like Solar and nuclear power for the power generation. When compared to the cost power generated through CNG will be costly than the other conventional energy sources. So if this industry has to survive a lot of work is to be done by both State and central governments. They should make a plan and implement the same in a time-bound way. Otherwise, the survival of these industries will be a question mark only.

LNG based power plants are existing in many countries and companies like WARTZILA are the pioneer in LNG powerplants industry. One main advantage of LNG is we can reduce the emission. Thus if environmental impact is our prime priority, LNG is a good option in a power plant.
In India there are many LNG terminals functioning and LNG is importing from different parts of the world to these terminals. Mainly from Saudi, Qatar and Iran. The importing cost is huge and thus the LNG used power generation is costlier than any other such projects. At present in India, we have LNG Terminals at Cochin, Ennore, Kakinada, Dhabol, Trombay, Pipavav, Dahej and Hazira.

Though LNG based power plant can entirely eliminate the pollution level because of proper combustion of the gas. However, we must look into the constraints associated with its usage. The following points should be looked into -
1) At present, we don't have huge stock of this Liquified Natural Gas and as such this material needs to be imported from South Arabia, Iran, Qatar etc at a sorbitant price and hence the final product, ie the power generated per unit has to sold at a very expensive price. In such a case, the customers would like to switch other options.
2) Since feeding this gas would be a continious affair and hence a large storage area is required to be made. At present we do have different terminals such as Cochin, Kakinada, Ennore etc.
3) The behaviour of the International market is erratic and in future, the price of this product may escalate further causing a heavy pay out by way of import price.
However, we must carry out geological explorations to locate more basins so that we may curtail the use this fuel considerably by means of import and power generation with LNG can be conveniently commissioned.
We must encourage the usage of wind - energy, solar - panels wherever possible and further installation of Atomic Power Generation would solve our scarcity in terms of power generation.
Coal - based power plant has its inherent defect the chief being emission of obnoxious gases through the chimney apart from large handling of ashes making the land infertile in its adjoining area. At the same time, rate of depletion of the same is very fast and as such we need to switch over this fuel.

Best alternatives to coal and oil sources are-
1) Natural gas,
2) Biomass,
3) Nuclear power,
4) Solar and wind energy

Natural gas-
Methane is the primary component of natural gas. It is popular because it burns cleaner than other fuels. When compared with other fuels, it liberates less amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. However, it liberates carbon in a large amount. It is used in coal plant conversion projects.

Biomass-
All the plant-derived organic material other than fossil fuel is biomass. For energy production, the biomass that is available includes residues and wastes of agricultural crops, residues and wastes of wood, municipal wastes, food, crops and water plants. Many coal power plants are trying to switch to biomass as a fuel source.

Nuclear power-
Controlled nuclear reactions generate nuclear power which can be used as an alternative fuel. Nuclear fission reactions are used by some of the commercial plants. In reactors, water gets heated to generate steam. It is used to produce electricity. Advantage of using it is that carbon dioxide is emitted in less amount. Electrical energy output is high.

Solar and wind energy-
The best sources of renewable energy which we have today are solar and wind energy. These two sources can be used as alternative fuels to coal and oil. Set up of plants require massive capital but they promise to give a break to the usage of fossil fuels.

Many countries are in a position to export LNG and in India because of gas based power generation there is capacity to use the gas generated by the re-gassification of the LNG. So India is importing it and there are good potential of its use in our country. The import of LNG is going to be significantly greater in the coming times and will be utilised in gas based power plants.

In our country LNG is not the only source of energy. We have coal, petroleum, CNG, LPG, Solar, Wind, Electrical etc sources also for our energy needs and there is thrust in many of the areas like wind energy, solar energy and electrical batteries. Under this scenario we can not see exceptionally brighter future for LNG but it will be one of the major fuel to be used at least for next few decades. Depending upon the cost of other sources as mentioned above the economics of using LNG will evolve in future.

India's 70 percent crude demand is imported from the middle east and African countries. Indian govt has adopted few policies like 100 percent FDI in the energy sector. Investment for the oil and gas sector in incentivized and growth opportunity is huge. In the last few years, India's LNG import has grown significantly. Petronet, Oil India, RIL is the big players who process LNG to support our domestic demand as well as export purposes.

India's power sector hugely depends on coal-based thermal power. Air pollution is a big problem caused by coal-based power plants.LNG based power plants are planned to replace the coal-based power plant. Govt already approves some of the LNG projects. This project attracts foreign investors for huge growth prospects in this sector.

Not only LNG projects, the whole oil, and gas sector in India has a promising future. India's import for oil and gas was 75 billion us dollars in the 2017-2018 financial year which grows to 84 billion US dollars in 2018-2019.LNG is clean. Use of LNG as a transportation fuel is govt's priority.60 oil and gas field is planned to sale via auction.