agricultural waste to the plant and get access to reliable power at commercial rate.
A supply chain to procure agricultural waste from villages in a radius of 10 km has
been established to ensure the supply of agricultural waste throughout the year. The
waste that was burnt in open fields has now become a source of energy and also
income for farmers. The 4.5 MW power plant set up by Malaballi Power Plant
Private Limited supplies electricity to 48 villages inhabited by 120,000 people in
the Mandya district in Karnataka.
In Punjab in the 1980s Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) had set up a
10 MW power plant based on rice straw at village Jalkheri, district Fatehgarh Sahib
in which 250–3000 tons per day (TPD) of fuel is burnt in a boiler furnace of steam
generation capacity of 50 tons per hour (TPH). The plant earlier used rice straw but
due to clinkerisation of boiler, rice straw was replaced with rice husk, cow dung,
and other agro wastes. This plant has since been leased out by PSEB to M/S
Jalkheri Power Private Limited. Now these plants will be using improved technology and M/S Punjab Biomass Power Limited has signed two agreements with
PSEB for setting up 12 MW rice straw-based power plants at Baghaura in Rajpura
Tehsil and Sawai Singh village in Patiala Tehsil. A total amount of 0.1 million
tones of paddy straw would be collected from a command area of 25 km
2 around
each unit and a barter system of providing electricity will be worked out with the
farmers. The units will be run on BOO (Build Own Operate)
1 basis. Detailed
project reports (DPR) have been prepared and land is being purchased.
4 Energy Technologies
The transportation of biomass is one of the key cost factors for its use as a source of
renewable energy. Decentralized energy provides an opportunity to use biomass to
meet local energy requirements in terms of electricity. In contrast to straw, the use
of rice husk for energy has been realized faster. Rice mills can use husk to serve
their internal energy requirements. As an alternative, rice millers could sell the husk
to a power plant operator. The propagation of rice husk use for energy was
accelerated by energy providers, who deal with a relatively small number of rice
millers for supplying husk, which is an easier task than dealing with thousands of
farmers supplying rice straw. Millers can also produce electricity themselves and
then sell to a power grid. This setup appears to be the most promising option in
terms of logistics and transportation for energy generation.
Transportation costs of straw are a major constraint to its use as an energy
source. As a rule of thumb, transportation distances beyond a 25–50 km radius
(depending on local infrastructure) are uneconomical. For longer distances, straw
1
In a BOO project ownership of the project remains usually with the Project Company. Therefore
the private company gets the benefits of any residual value of the project. This framework is used
when the physical life of the project coincides with the concession period. A BOO scheme
involves large amounts of finance and long payback period.
Energy Generation by Use of Crop Stubble in Punjab
513
A supply chain to procure agricultural waste from villages in a radius of 10 km has
been established to ensure the supply of agricultural waste throughout the year. The
waste that was burnt in open fields has now become a source of energy and also
income for farmers. The 4.5 MW power plant set up by Malaballi Power Plant
Private Limited supplies electricity to 48 villages inhabited by 120,000 people in
the Mandya district in Karnataka.
In Punjab in the 1980s Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) had set up a
10 MW power plant based on rice straw at village Jalkheri, district Fatehgarh Sahib
in which 250–3000 tons per day (TPD) of fuel is burnt in a boiler furnace of steam
generation capacity of 50 tons per hour (TPH). The plant earlier used rice straw but
due to clinkerisation of boiler, rice straw was replaced with rice husk, cow dung,
and other agro wastes. This plant has since been leased out by PSEB to M/S
Jalkheri Power Private Limited. Now these plants will be using improved technology and M/S Punjab Biomass Power Limited has signed two agreements with
PSEB for setting up 12 MW rice straw-based power plants at Baghaura in Rajpura
Tehsil and Sawai Singh village in Patiala Tehsil. A total amount of 0.1 million
tones of paddy straw would be collected from a command area of 25 km
2 around
each unit and a barter system of providing electricity will be worked out with the
farmers. The units will be run on BOO (Build Own Operate)
1 basis. Detailed
project reports (DPR) have been prepared and land is being purchased.
4 Energy Technologies
The transportation of biomass is one of the key cost factors for its use as a source of
renewable energy. Decentralized energy provides an opportunity to use biomass to
meet local energy requirements in terms of electricity. In contrast to straw, the use
of rice husk for energy has been realized faster. Rice mills can use husk to serve
their internal energy requirements. As an alternative, rice millers could sell the husk
to a power plant operator. The propagation of rice husk use for energy was
accelerated by energy providers, who deal with a relatively small number of rice
millers for supplying husk, which is an easier task than dealing with thousands of
farmers supplying rice straw. Millers can also produce electricity themselves and
then sell to a power grid. This setup appears to be the most promising option in
terms of logistics and transportation for energy generation.
Transportation costs of straw are a major constraint to its use as an energy
source. As a rule of thumb, transportation distances beyond a 25–50 km radius
(depending on local infrastructure) are uneconomical. For longer distances, straw
1
In a BOO project ownership of the project remains usually with the Project Company. Therefore
the private company gets the benefits of any residual value of the project. This framework is used
when the physical life of the project coincides with the concession period. A BOO scheme
involves large amounts of finance and long payback period.
Energy Generation by Use of Crop Stubble in Punjab
513