Coal in India

Until 2010 almost all Indian coal-fired plants used subcritical technology, withan average efficiency of around 28 per cent, compared with 36 per cent inChina and 33 per cent in the United States. Reflecting the relatively lowerefficiency, the emissions from India’s coal fleet are around 1100 grams ofCO 2per kilowatt hour, which is well above the most efficient plants at around750 grams (IEA 2014b; IEA Clean Coal Centre 2014). In addition, the use ofpoor quality, high ash, Indian coal, while affecting the type of plants that havetraditionally been built and hence efficiency, also reduces plant availability,as more frequent maintenance is required.These factors have underpinned the targets in the Twelfth FYP (runningfrom 2012 to 2017) to build large scale, more efficient supercritical plants.Furthermore, it is intended to use more efficient cooling technologies, avoiddrawing on increasingly scarce inland water resources and use higherquality, low ash coal in order to maximise the efficiency gains, and raiseplant utilisation, through higher coal availability and shorter maintenancetimes. This coal has tended to come chiefly from Indonesia, where severalprivate power companies have an ownership stake in local mines.The first supercritical plant in India was commissioned in 2012. It is expectedthat plants using this technology will account for an increasing share ofnew plants being developed—an estimated 40 per cent of new plants beingdeveloped over the current decade—as policy mandates their use beyond2017. Nonetheless, the efficiency of Indian coal-fired power plants willremain well below global best practice, and subcritical plants will dominatethe power mix for some time.Box 2. Coal-fired electricity generation technologiesPulverised Coal Combustion (PCC) is the most common coal-fired technologydeployed worldwide. There are a few PCC technologies being used that havemarkedly different efficiencies, costs and pollution outcomes. The efficiency of aplant refers to the electricity produced for a given heat input. In coal-fired powerplants, this depends on the temperature and pressure of the steam generatedin the boiler during combustion. The efficiency of a plant increases as bothtemperature and pressure are increased.Subcritical technologies are the most common coal-fired plant utilised. It has thelowest efficiency (around 30 per cent) of the available technologies. Subcriticalplants generally have low capital costs, which supports its large-scale uptake.Supercritical technologies achieve efficiencies of around 40 per cent. The capitalcost of these plants is higher because it must use materials with a greater heattolerance in the boiler. Supercritical plants use less coal and generate less CO 2than subcritical plants.Ultra-supercritical and Advanced ultra-supercritical plants operate at efficienciesbetween 45–50 per cent. The capital cost of these plants is high because theymust use advanced materials (with high nickel content) in the boiler. They use lesscoal and emit less CO 2than supercritical plants.Plants that utilise supercritical technologies and above require higher energy coal,with low ash content, to operate optimally. See Appendix Part B for further details.INDIA’S ELECTRICITY AND COAL MARKETS41