Brown coal remains best option for power plants

India will continue to be supplied cheapest Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in the coming years as long as the United States’ shale production continues through till about 2025.

The US shale oil and gas production has brought down prices which are good for energy importers like India, Japan and South Korea, said delegates at the Singapore International Energy Week held 23-27 October 2017.

“The LNG market is getting shorter, more liquid and transparent that suits market like India as there are going to be more LNG available on the spot,” said Martin Houston, vice chairman of the Texas-based LNG company Tellurian Inc.

“With the increasing number of terminals along the coasts and pipeline connection, I see great amount of LNG being sold to India (in the coming years),” he told a press conference at the Singapore International Energy Week on 23 October 2017.

While welcoming the cheaper LNG supplies in the market place, Keisuke Sadamori, director at the Directorate of Energy Markets and Security in the International Energy Agency (IEA), underlined the importance of stability and security for long-term LNG supply contracts.

He noted India has joined Japan, South Korea and China in calls for global LNG suppliers to offer competitive prices, saying IEA had championed cheaper gas supply much earlier.

Houston elaborated on India’s ability to renegotiate prices of its long-term LNG contracts.

There has been willing buyers and willing sellers and gas continued to be supplied to India despite the re-negotiation of termed contracts, he pointed out.

Lower price energy including LNG is important in developing India’s still complex energy sector, noted delegates at SIEW.

The delegates noted Indian renewable energy target, some 275 GW by 2027, according to National Electricity Plan 3. But they were quick to point out that brown coal will remain cheaper option for the power generation plants and for the country’s electrification programme.

Coal-fired plants are the most apt options for providing electricity to villages and remote locations across the country, they stressed.

Coal will continue to play a significant role in India’s power generating plants, said clean energy consultant Ken Hickson, managing director of Singapore-based ABC Carbon.

He noted the government continuing efforts to reach out with electricity across the country.

Hickson believes in India’s ambitious renewable energy programme but noted that progress on some of the green projects have been slow.

India has vast renewable energy resources, hydro-power, solar and wind being among the main sources.

He observed that Indian renewable business is one of the most attractive investment segments but the processes of getting on with project were still slower despite the improving ease of doing business in India. fii-news.com