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GS Paper: GS3-13.Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc:

  • New Single-window Clearance for Coal Mines

    The Union government has announced a new online single window clearance portal for the coal sector to speed up the operationalization of coal mines.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Consider the following statements:

    1. In India, State Governments do not have the power to auction non -coal mines.
    2. Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand do not have goldmines.
    3. Rajasthan has iron ore mines.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 3 only

    What is a single-window clearance portal?

    • A single window clearance portal is aimed at allowing successful bidders for coal blocks to be able to obtain all required clearances.
    • It includes environmental and forest clearances, from a single portal with progress monitoring, instead of having to go to multiple authorities.
    • The portal should allow successful bidders to operationalize coal mines more quickly.
    • The Parivesh mechanism for forest and environment-related clearances would likely be merged into this mechanism.

    Why need such a portal?

    • Presently, about 19 major approvals or clearances are required before starting the coal mine in the country.
    • In the absence of a unified platform for grant of clearances, companies were required to approach different departments, leading to delay in operationalization.

    How will the portal help?

    • Industry sources said that the sector has long sought a single-window clearance system to help with quicker operationalization.
    • Obtaining the requisite clearances was taking over 2-3 years for successful bidders in many cases.
    • Some coal blocks auctioned as far back as 2015 has still not been operationalised due to delays in obtaining required clearances.

    Must read:

    [Burning Issue] The Mineral Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020

  • What are Spectrum Auctions?

    In the spectrum auctions scheduled to begin on March 1this year, the government plans to sell spectrum for 4G in the 700, 800, 900, 1,800, 2,100, 2,300, and 2,500 MHz frequency bands.

    Q.What are the various challenges faced by India’s telecom before the upgradation to 5G technology?

    What is Spectrum?

    • Devices such as cellphones and wireline telephones require signals to connect from one end to another.
    • These signals are carried on airwaves, which must be sent at designated frequencies to avoid any kind of interference.
    • The Union government owns all the publicly available assets within the geographical boundaries of the country, which also include airwaves.
    • With the expansion in the number of cellphones, wireline telephone and internet users, the need to provide more space for the signals arise from time to time.

    Spectrum allocations

    • Spectrum refers to the invisible radio frequencies that wireless signals travel over. The frequencies we use for wireless are only a portion of what is called the electromagnetic spectrum.
    • To sell these assets to companies willing to set up the required infrastructure to transport these waves from one end to another, the central government through the DoT auctions these airwaves from time to time.
    • These airwaves called spectrum is subdivided into bands which have varying frequencies.
    • All these airwaves are sold for a certain period of time, after which their validity lapses, which is generally set at 20 years.

    Why is spectrum being auctioned now?

    • The last spectrum auctions were held in 2016 when the government offered 2,354.55 MHz at a reserve price of Rs 5.60 lakh crore.
    • Although the government managed to sell only 965 MHz – or about 40 per cent of the spectrum that was put up for sale.
    • The need for a new spectrum auction has arisen because the validity of the airwaves bought by companies is set to expire in 2021.

    How is the spectrum priced?

    • The reserve price of all these bands together has been fixed at Rs 3.92 lakh crore.
    • Depending on the demand from various companies, the price of the airwaves may go higher, but cannot go below the reserve price.

    How will the payment plan work?

    • As part of the deferred payment plan, bidders for the sub-1 GHz bands of 700, 800 and 900 MHz can opt to pay 25 per cent of the bid amount now, and the rest later.
    • In the above-1 GHz bands of 1,800, 2,100, 2,300, and 2,500 MHz frequency bands, bidders will have to pay 50 per cent upfront, and can then opt to pay the rest in equated annual instalments.
    • The successful bidders will, however, have to pay 3 per cent of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) as spectrum usage charges, excluding wireline services.

    Who is likely to bid for the spectrum?

    • All major private telecom players in India are eligible contenders to buy additional spectrum to support the number of users on their network.
    • Apart from these three, new companies, including foreign companies, are also eligible to bid for the airwaves.
    • Foreign companies, however, will have to either set up a branch in India and register as an Indian company or tie-up with an Indian company to be able to retain the airwaves after winning them.

  • [pib] Six successful years of UJALA Scheme

    The Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) Scheme and Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP) marks their sixth anniversary today.

    Do not get confused with PM-UJJWALA Scheme.

    UJALA Scheme

    • Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) was launched by our PM on 1 May 2015, replacing the “Bachat Lamp Yojana”.
    • The project is spearheaded by the Energy Efficiency Services Limited.
    • In non-subsidized LED lamp distribution projects, this program is considered the world’s largest.
    • In May 2017, the Government of India announced that they were expanding the LED distribution project to the United Kingdom.
    • Both the programmes are being implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of PSUs under the Ministry of Power, Government of India since their inception.

    A roaring success

    • Under UJALA, EESL has distributed over 36.69 crores LED bulbs across India.
    • This has resulted in estimated energy savings of 47.65 billion kWh per year with an avoided peak demand of 9,540 MW and an estimated GHG emission reduction of 38.59 million tonnes CO2 per year.
    • Additionally, over 72 lakh LED tube lights and over 23 lakh energy efficient fans have also been distributed at an affordable price under this programme.

  • [pib] Kochi – Mangaluru Natural Gas Pipeline

    PM will today dedicate the Kochi – Mangaluru Natural Gas Pipeline to the nation.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q. Consider the following statements:

    1. Natural gas occurs in the Gondwana beds.
    2. Mica occurs in abundance in Kodarma.
    3. Dharwars are famous for petroleum.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) 2 and 3 only

    (d) None

    Kochi – Mangaluru Pipeline

    • The 450 km long pipeline has been built by GAIL (India) Ltd.
    • It has a transportation capacity of 12 Million Metric Standard Cubic Metres per day.
    • It will carry natural gas from the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Regasification Terminal at Kochi (Kerala) to Mangaluru (Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka).
    • It will pass through Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod districts.

    Its significance

    • The event marks an important milestone towards the creation of ‘One Nation One Gas Grid’.
    • The pipeline will supply environment-friendly and affordable fuel in the form of Piped Natural Gas (PNG) to households and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to the transportation sector.
    • It will also supply Natural Gas to commercial and industrial units across the districts along the pipeline.
    • Consumption of cleaner fuel will help in improving air quality by curbing air pollution.

    Back2Basics: Natural Gas

    • Natural gas is a fossil fuel source consisting primarily of methane.
    • It is the cleanest among all the available fossil fuels.
    • It is used as a feedstock in the manufacture of fertilizers, plastics and other commercially important organic chemicals as well as used as a fuel for electricity generation, heating purpose in industrial and commercial units.
    • Natural gas is also used for cooking in domestic households and a transportation fuel for vehicles.

  • What is Interconnection Usage Charge (IUC) in Telecom?

    The termination charge for wireless to wireless domestic calls has been zeroed from January 1 onwards. Until now operators paid Interconnection Usage Charges (IUC) of 6 paise per minute on mobile calls.

    We are heading for 5G and yet we were indulged in 2G era spat. Sounds strange, but finally IUC got away….

    Interconnection Usage Charge (IUC)

    • IUC is the cost that a mobile operator pays to another operator for carrying through/ terminating a call.
    • If a customer of Mobile Operator A calls a customer of Mobile Operator B and the call is completed, then A pays an IUC charge to B for carrying/facilitating the call.
    • Essentially, it is the originating network compensating the receiving network for the cost of carrying the call. In India, IUC is set by the TRAI.

    When was it introduced?

    • IUC was introduced at a time when some operators had a larger network footprint compared to new players.
    • In such a scenario, the larger operators had to be compensated for the investments it had to enable call completion. However, over the years this gap between operators has reduced.
    • All the remaining operators have identical network footprint when it comes to voice calls.
    • TRAI’s original deadline to phase out IUC was January 1, 2020.

    What does it mean to Consumers?

    • For mobile users, this means that all voice calls will be free from now on.
    • While almost all operators had already started offering unlimited calls as part of their bundled pack, some were charging the 6 paise from consumers for paying IUC charges.
    • From January 1, operators will stop collecting the charges.
    • But other than that there will not be any significant gain for users. Tariff packs available in the market already offer data with unlimited voice calls.

    What does the end of the IUC regime imply?

    • For the operators, the end of the IUC regime will lead to easier operations.
    • Many legal battles have been fought in the past over disputes related to IUC charges.
    • Now, the operators can keep whatever money they collect from consumers without having to keep a tab on where the call is terminating.
    • The change in the billing system will not have any significant impact on operators’ revenue.

  • What are Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs)?

    Prime Minister has inaugurated a 351-km section between Khurja and Bhaupur in Uttar Pradesh for commercial operations of the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC).

    There is another concept named Dedicated Passenger Corridors (DPCs). Can you guess the idea behind?

    Background of DFCs

    • The concept of Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) was mooted in 2006 to generate substantial capacity for freight traffic by developing separate tracks on identified routes.
    • The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL) was incorporated as a separate company under the Ministry of Railways.

    What is the DFC?

    • Under the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007–12), Railways started constructing a new DFC in two long routes, namely the Eastern and Western freight corridors.
    • The section recently launched is part of the 1,839-km Eastern DFC that starts at Sohnewal (Ludhiana) in Punjab and ends at Dankuni in West Bengal.
    • The other arm is the around 1,500-km Western DFC from Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to JNPT in Mumbai, touching all major ports along the way.
    • There is also a section under construction between Dadri and Khurja to connect the Eastern and Western arms.

    Why is it important?

    • Around 70% of the freight trains currently running on the Indian Railway network are slated to shift to the freight corridors, leaving the paths open for more passenger trains.
    • Tracks on DFC are designed to carry heavier loads than most of the Indian Railways.
    • DFC will get track access charge from the parent Indian Railways, and also generate its own freight business.

    What trains will use the new section?

    • Freight trains plying on this section from now on will help decongest the existing Kanpur-Delhi main line of Indian Railways, which currently handles trains at 150% of its line capacity.
    • The new section means on the Indian Railway mainline, more passenger trains can be pumped in and those trains can, in turn, achieve better punctuality.
    • Foodgrain and fertilizers from the northern region are transported to the eastern and Northeast regions.
    • From East and Northeast, coal, iron ore, jute, and petroleum products are transported North and West.

  • National Common Mobility Card (NCMC)

    Prime Minister has launched the ambitious National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) service for the Delhi Metro’s Airport Express Line.

    Q.What is the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC)? How it a step moving towards a one nation one card system? (150W)

    National Common Mobility Card

    • The idea of NCMC was floated by the Nandan Nilekani committee set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
    • The committee had suggested that NCMC should contain two instruments – a regular debit card which can be used at an ATM and a local wallet.
    • Banks mandated by the department of financial services have been asked to make their debit cards NCMC compliant, to ensure availability of service.
    • The committee has also proposed a host of measures, including all payments by the government to citizens through the digital mode, to reduce the number of cash transactions in the country.

    Features of the NCMC

    • NCMC will allow passengers with RuPay debit cards, issued in the last 18 months by 23 banks, including SBI, UCO Bank, Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank, etc, to be swiped for Metro travel.
    • It can be used at all transit locations making all new metro and transit payments interoperable via one card.
    • NCMC is an automatic fare collection system. It will turn smartphones into an inter-operable transport card that commuters can use eventually to pay for Metro, bus, and suburban railways services.
    • NCMC service is slated to cover the entire 400km stretch of Delhi Metro.
    • It will allow entry and exit from Metro stations with the help of a smartphone, known as the automatic fare collection (AFC) system.
    • To make AFC compliant indigenous gates for metro stations, the government has engaged Bharat Electronics Limited. Eventually, all Metro stations will be fitted with AFC gates.

  • [pib] Rights to the Electricity Consumers

    The Ministry of Power has for the first time laid down Rights to the Electricity Consumers through “Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020”.

    Q.What are the new Rights to the Electricity Consumers as envisaged under Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020?

    Rights to the Electricity Consumers: A highlight

    Following key areas are covered in the Electricity (Rights of consumers) Rules:

    • Rights of consumers and Obligations of Distribution licensees
    • Release of new connection and modification in an existing connection
    • Metering arrangement
    • Billing and Payment
    • Disconnection and Reconnection
    • Reliability of supply
    • Consumer as Prosumer
    • Standards of Performance of licensee
    • Compensation Mechanism
    • Call Centre for Consumer Services
    • Grievance redressal mechanism

    (1) Rights and Obligations

    • It is the duty of every distribution licensee to supply electricity on request made by an owner or occupier of any premises in line with the provisions of the Act.
    • It is the right of the consumer to have minimum standards of service for the supply of electricity from the distribution licensee.

    (2) Release of new connection and modification in an existing connection

    • Transparent, simple, and time-bound processes,
    • The applicant has an option for online application,
    • The maximum time period of 7 days in metro cities and 15 days in other municipal areas and 30 days in rural areas identified to provide new connections and modify existing connections.

    (3) Metering

    • No connection shall be given without a meter;
    • Meter shall be the smart pre-payment meter or pre-payment meter;
    • Provision of Testing of meters;
    • Provisions for replacement of defective or burnt or stolen meters specified.

    (4) Billing and payment

    • Transparency in applicable consumer tariff and bills;
    • A consumer shall have the option to pay bills online or offline;
    • Provision for advance payment of bills.

    (5) Reliability of supply

    • The distribution licensee shall supply 24×7 powers to all consumers. However, the Commission may specify lower hours of supply for some categories of consumers like agriculture;
    • The distribution licensee shall put in place a mechanism, preferably with automated tools to the extent possible, for monitoring and restoring outages.

    (6) Consumer as prosumer

    • The prosumers will maintain consumer status and have the same rights as the general consumer.
    • They will also have the right to set up RE generation units including rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems – either by themselves or through a service provider.
    • Net metering for loads up to ten kW and for gross metering for loads above ten kW.

    (7) Standards of Performance

    • The Commission shall notify the standards of performance for the distribution licensees;
    • Compensation amount to be paid to the consumers by the distribution licensees for violation of standards of performance.

    (8) Compensation mechanism

    • Automatic compensation shall be paid to consumers for which parameters on standards of performance can be monitored remotely;
    • The standards of performance for which the compensation is required to be paid by the distribution licensee.

    (9) Call Centre for Consumer Services

    • Distribution licensee shall establish a centralized 24×7 toll-free call center;
    • Licensees shall endeavor to provide all services through a common Customer Relation Manager (CRM) System to get a unified view.

    (10) Grievance redressal mechanism

    • Consumer Grievance Redressal Forum (CGRF) to include consumer and prosumer representatives;
    • The consumer grievance redressal has been made easy by making it multi-layered and the number of consumer’s representatives has been increased from one to four.
    • The licensee shall specify the time within which various types of grievances by the different levels of the forums are to be resolved. Maximum timeline of 45 days specified for grievance redressal.

  • Gas Production in Krishna-Godavari Basin

    Reliance Industries Ltd and BP (British Petroleum) have announced the start of gas production from the R cluster of the KG Basin, the deepest off-shore gas field in Asia.

    Must read

    [Burning Issue] India’s push for a Gas-based Economy

    Krishna-Godavari Basin

    • The Krishna Godavari Basin is a proven petroliferous basin of continental margin located on the east coast of India.
    • Its onland part covers an area of 15000 sq. km and the offshore part covers an area of 25,000 sq. km up to 1000 m isobath.
    • The basin contains about 5 km thick sediments with several cycles of deposition, ranging in age from Late Carboniferous to Pleistocene.
    • The major geomorphologic units of the Krishna Godavari basin are Upland plains, Coastal plains, Recent Flood and Delta Plains.

    Minerals found

    • KG inland and offshore basins have good prospects of tight oil and tight gas reserves from the conducted field studies.
    • The first gas discovery in the basin was in 1983.
    • Most of the conventional wells drilled and operated have a shorter lifespan than envisaged life and with erratic production.
    • This may be due to drilling of conventional wells in tight oil and gas fields without horizontal drilling in the shale rock formations and hydraulic fracturing.

    Note: Tight gas and tight oil are produced from reservoir rocks with such low permeability that considerable hydraulic fracturing is required to harvest the well at economic rates.

    The KGD6 block

    • Krishna Godavari Dhirubhai 6 (KG-D6) was Reliance’s first offshore gas field development and its first underwater discovery.
    • It was also India’s largest deposit of natural gas and the largest such discovery in the world in 2002.
    • The project takes its name from India’s Krishna-Godavari Basin, which covers more than 19,000 square miles (50,000 square kilometres) in Andhra Pradesh and production block D6 in the Bay of Bengal.

    Why is this important?

    • The R cluster, along with the Satellite Cluster and MJ gas fields in the KG Basin is expected to produce around 30 MMSCMD (million standard cubic metres per day) of natural gas.
    • This is about 15% of India’s projected demand for natural gas by 2023.

    Do they impact India’s energy security efforts?

    • The three projects are a key part of the plan to boost domestic production of natural gas to increase the share of natural gas in India’s energy basket from 6.2% now to 15% by 2030.
    • Increased domestic production of natural gas is an important aspect of reducing India’s dependence on imports and improves energy security.

  • Renewable Energy Generation: Betting on the green power market

    The article takes stock of the progress India made on renewable energy capacity and the steps taken for its trade through the creation of green markets.

    India increasing share of renewable energy

    • As a signatory to the Paris Climate Agreement, India is committed to increasing its share of renewable energy capacity to 450 GW by 2030.
    • India has an installed renewable energy capacity of 89 GW.
    • India has today become the most attractive destination for investment in the renewable sector.
    • During the last six years, has attracted over Rs 4.7 lakh crore of investment, including FDI of about Rs 42,700 crore.
    • India witnessed 20% CAGR growth in the renewable generation since FY16 while total electricity generation saw 4.3% growth in the same period.
    • The current levelised cost of energy (LCOE) for large scale solar in India is around Rs 2.5 per kWh, compared to ~Rs 12 in 2010. 

    Factor’s responsible

    • Waiver of inter-state transmission charges for the sale of solar and wind power, the renewable purchase obligation (RPO) trajectories for states, focus on maintaining the sanctity of contracts, permitting FDI in the renewable sector have accelerated the progress.

    Trading in renewable power

    • Most renewable power generation companies in India are committed to selling their power to consumers—mostly discoms  under the long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).
    • It is also a matter of gratification that most generation companies have adopted a robust system of forecasting and scheduling of power.
    • It is in this context, the CERC was approached for creating a market for green energy.
    • Ultimately, the CERC approved trading of renewable energy contracts under Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM) on the energy exchange.
    • The green market commenced trade on August 21, in day-ahead contingency (DAC) and intra-day contracts in both solar and non-solar segments.
    • The green market has now launched two more options—daily and weekly.
    • This will further strengthen the market and allow participants to buy green energy through contracts available for trade in all the segments.
    • The energy will be delivered to the market participants leveraging the national, regional and state-level transmission and distribution network.
    • With robust value proposition such as transparency, competitive prices, flexibility, and payment security and financial savings that the exchange market offers, a pan-India green market has the potential to drive and facilitate the country to meet its renewable energy targets.
    • The green market will ultimately encourage green generators to adopt multiple models of sale and trading.

    Conclusion

    Going forward, the introduction of new segments such as green day-ahead market, long-duration green contracts, contract for difference (CfD), etc, will play a crucial role in furthering sustainability goals, and ensuring that all the renewable energy generated within the country is dispatched in the most efficient manner through a pan India wide exchange-based energy markets.

    Source:-

    https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/renewable-energy-generation-betting-on-the-green-power-market/2147657/