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Daily News Wrap-Up: APTEL Criticizes MERC for Denying Petitioner Relief

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					</table>On May 29, 2024, when the temperature in India’s capital, New Delhi, touched a scorching 52.3 degrees Celsius, the peak day-time power demand saw a new high at 246.06 GW.
The highest temperature was recorded at one of Delhi’s weather stations, and meteorological officials said they were investigating whether the measuring sensors were working correctly there.
According to the <a href="https://posoco.in/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Grid Controller of India</a>, a peak power demand of 86.65 GW was met in Northern India, which is reeling under severe temperatures this summer. The mercury has consistently soared above 45 degrees across several regional towns and cities for several days.
The maximum energy demand met during non-solar hours was 234.35 GW, with a shortage of 13.25 GW. There was no shortage during the solar hours.
Generation from all power sources totaled 5,814 million units (MU). Renewables accounted for 1,048 MU, while coal contributed the most at 3,776 MU.
The power demand trajectory has been on expected lines this summer. The Central Electricity Authority had projected an all-India peak power demand of 256.53 GW in the financial year (FY) 2024-25. It had predicted that power demand would surpass 256 GW in September 2024.
The previous peak was <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/dry-august-sparks-demand-across-india" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recorded</a> on September 1, 2023. August last year was the warmest month in India for over 120 years and one of the worst monsoon-deficient months in history, leading to a drop in hydroelectric power generation. Power demand had scaled new heights across several states.
Apart from climate issues, increased industrial activity has led to surging power demand in recent years. Peak energy demand grew 12.7% from 215.88 GW in 2022-23 to 243.27 GW in 2023-24. The peak demand met rose 13.9% from 210.72 GW in 2022-23 to 239.93 GW in 2023-24.
Anticipating higher demand this year, the government put a series of measures in place to ensure no load shedding. The Power Ministry directed stakeholders to prevent a situation in which one state has surplus power while another faces power shortages.
The government had said it was considering shifting the planned maintenance of 1.7 GW of thermal capacity in April and 6-9 GW in June to the monsoon season. A review of the 5.2 GW of non-operational thermal capacity was also on the cards, while the commissioning of projects in coal, hydro, nuclear, solar, and wind sectors was to be expedited.

Peak Power Demand Touches a Record 246 GW as Northern India Sizzles

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					</table>The costs of producing and trading green hydrogen must be lower than domestic production to offset higher transport costs and make hydrogen trade cost-effective, a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (<a href="https://www.irena.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IRENA</a>) has said.
The report said the hydrogen trade would significantly contribute to a more diversified and resilient energy system.
With falling costs of renewables and the hydrogen potential surpassing the energy demand by twenty-fold globally, three-quarters of global hydrogen will still be produced and used locally in 2050. This is a significant change from today’s oil market, where the bulk is internationally traded.
The report details that by 2050, about one-quarter of the global hydrogen demand totaling 150 megatons per year, could be satisfied through international trade, while the other three quarters would be domestically produced and consumed. IRENA observes this transition as a significant change from today’s oil market, where about 74% is internationally traded. It is similar to today’s gas market, of which just 33% is traded across borders.
The report titled ‘Global hydrogen trade to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius climate goal’ said hydrogen trade can lead to a lower-cost energy supply. This is because cheaper (imported) energy is tapped into while creating a more robust energy system with more alternatives to cope with unexpected events.
Hydrogen is currently being traded through largely existing, repurposed gas pipelines resulting in the drastic reduction of transport costs. As H2 becomes an internationally traded commodity, the reports predict its production will witness increased investments, fulfilling the global energy demand of around $4 trillion by 2050.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-37851" src="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Hydrogen-Demand-by-Application.png" alt="Hydrogen Demand by Application" width="1504" height="1153" srcset="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Hydrogen-Demand-by-Application.png 1504w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Hydrogen-Demand-by-Application-300x230.png 300w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Hydrogen-Demand-by-Application-768x589.png 768w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Hydrogen-Demand-by-Application-650x498.png 650w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Hydrogen-Demand-by-Application-624x478.png 624w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Hydrogen-Demand-by-Application-600x460.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1504px) 100vw, 1504px" />
IRENA emphasizes that when the world has transitioned to a cleaner future by maintaining the 1.5°C temperature, around 25% of hydrogen will be traded globally— half in the form of ammonia transported by sea and half through gaseous hydrogen pipelines concentrated in Europe and Latin America.
It further observes that of the internationally traded H2 in the 1.5°C scenario, around 55% would travel by pipeline— while most of the hydrogen network would be based on existing natural gas pipelines that would be retrofitted to transport pure hydrogen drastically reducing the transport costs.
The report highlights that the two pipeline-enabled trade routes would be concentrated in Europe and Latin America. The remaining 45% of the internationally traded H2 would be shipped as ammonia, primarily used without being reconverted to hydrogen. Around 70% of hydrogen traded will be used as feedstock and fuel in 2050.
According to the report, the cost of producing green hydrogen must be sufficiently less expensive in the exporting region than in the importing region to compensate for the transport cost. Such cost differential, the agency says, would become larger as the scale of projects increases and technology develops to reduce transport costs.
IRENA’s Director-General Francesco La Camera asserted, “It is true that hydrogen trade offers multiple opportunities from decarbonizing industry to diversifying supplies and improving energy security. A mix of innovation, government policy support and scale can bring the necessary cost reduction and create a global hydrogen market. Whether or not trade potentials can be realized will depend on countries’ policies and investment priorities and the ability to decarbonize their own energy systems.”
Recently, a report by the Government of India’s think tank, NITI Aayog, <a href="https://mercomindia.com/niti-aayog-ten-steps-make-india-hydrogen-hub/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prescribed</a> ten ways for India to emerge as the global hub for green hydrogen production. It said that India could have the world’s highest green hydrogen capacity of over 60 GW by 2030 if the right steps are taken.
Earlier this year, IRENA <a href="https://mercomindia.com/daily-news-wrap-up-mnre-irena-green-hydrogen/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> a strategic partnership agreement with the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) to facilitate knowledge sharing from India on scaling-up clean energy technologies and support the country’s efforts in advancing cost-effective decarbonization through the domestic production of green hydrogen.

Green Hydrogen Trade Can Provide a Low-cost Option for Diversifying Energy Imports

Researchers at the <a href="https://www.ssn.edu.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SSN College of Engineering</a>, Chennai, have claimed that they have developed high-performance multicrystalline silicon ingots through the directional solidification (DS) method.
The researchers explained that multicrystalline silicon has a less favorable crystalline structure and low-cost compared to monocrystalline silicon. The efficiency of solar cells is affected by impurities, dislocations, and von Mises stress, a value used to determine if a given material will fracture.
In their report, the researchers said that it is essential to optimize the temperature profile to reduce impurities and von Mises stress for solar photovoltaic applications.
The researchers used a transient global heat transfer method to optimize the temperature profile of the directional solidification process to develop high-performance multicrystalline silicon ingots.
The solidification process is dependent on the furnace parameters that influence the thermal condition and side insulation movement. These factors control the solidification process to obtain optimal growth conditions to produce high-quality silicon ingots that can improve solar cells’ efficiency.
The researchers controlled the temperature in the DS furnace with a thermocouple. This control parameter determined the condition in the DS furnace to improve the quality of solidified silicon ingot.
“The transient simulation is performed to analyze the effect of optimized temperature profile which gives slightly convex interface, lower carbon impurities and von Mises stress in the multicrystalline silicon ingots. The result may help further optimize the control of the process parameters,” the researchers said.
The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy supported the research project.
In October 2020, HighLine Technology GmbH, a spin-off of Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy System ISE, <a href="https://mercomindia.com/this-dispensing-technology-silicon-solar-cells/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> that it had developed a new dispensing technology, enhancing the electricity yield of silicon solar cells. The company has plans to commercialize this technology.
Mercom had earlier <a href="https://mercomindia.com/researchers-identify-source-impurity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology claimed that they had identified how impurities were formed in silicon crystals during their manufacturing process.
Image credit: ArticCynda, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Chennai Researchers Claim a New Method to Improve Multicrystalline Silicon Ingots

The Solar Energy Corporation of India (<a href="https://www.seci.co.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SECI</a>) has issued an amendment for its tender for the development of 1.95 MW of solar projects in the union territory of Lakshadweep.
SECI had <a href="https://mercomindia.com/tender-floated-solar-energy-storage-lakshadweep/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">issued</a> the tender for the development of the project with 2.15 MW of battery energy storage systems (BESS) in September 2019.
Earlier, regarding the operation and maintenance of the projects, SECI had stated that the contractor must demonstrate the committed CUF (capacity utilization factor) at the end of every year per the commitment made in line with the performance guarantees.
Now, the amended version states that instead of the CUF, the contractor must demonstrate the committed availability factor at the end of every year.
SECI has also revised the time and commissioning of the projects at respective islands.  For the 150 kW solar project at BangaRam Island and 100 kW project at Thinnakara Island, the commissioning timeframe has been amended to 12 months from the previous timeline of six months.  The commissioning timeline of 12 months for Agatti Island (300 kW) and Kavaratti Island (1,400 kW) remains the same.
Earlier, the functional guarantee for the projects comprised of two guarantees:
(1) Performance ratio guarantee test for operational acceptance.
(2) Annual generation guarantees up to 10 years (O&amp;M period), starting from the date of operational acceptance.
Now, SECI has amended this clause, and the second component of functional guarantee will now include the minimum annual plant availability.
Further, SECI has also revised the format of the Schedule of Rates (SOR) for this tender, which will supersede the earlier SOR format.  The SOR-1 has been amended with the addition of the provisions for the breakup of line items regarding BESS and scrap sale clarifications.
According to SECI, the temperature co-efficient of power should not be less than -0.40%/°C as compared to the previous document, which stated -0.30%/°C.
Moreover, in clarification, SECI has stated that environmental clearance certificates will not be required for the project.  SECI has also stated that it will not accept a mix of technology in project development.
Recently, it was reported that SECI <a href="https://mercomindia.com/seci-modifies-7-gw-solar-tender-with-manufacturing-component/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">announced</a> an amendment for its tender for 7 GW of solar projects coupled with 2 GW of the manufacturing component. SECI provided many incentives to the developers interested in this tender, and as a result, the tender was met with a good response.
Mercom reported recently that SECI’s manufacturing linked tender was <a href="https://mercomindia.com/seci-manufacturing-linked-solar-tender-oversubscribed-by-1-gw/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">oversubscribed by 1 GW</a>.
In February 2019, SECI had also <a href="https://mercomindia.com/seci-floating-solar-lakshadweep-bess/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">issued</a> a new tender for 20 MW of floating solar projects with 60 MW (BESS) on a turnkey basis in Lakshadweep.

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