Sip 106 Laxmiswarupa

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Summer Internship Report

Regression Analysis of Operational Efficiency

Variables on Management Practices of Thermal Power

Plants. _______________________________________________________________________________

Under the Guidance of

Mr Rajkiran V Bilolikar, Assistant Professor, Energy Area , Administrative Staff College of

India , Hyderabad.

Dr. Manisha, Senior Fellow, National Power Training Institute, Faridabad

At

Administrative Staff College of India, Bella Vista, Hyderabad.

Submitted by

LAXMI SWARUPA

Roll No: 106

MBA (Power Management)

(Under the Ministry of Power, Govt. of India)

Affiliated to

MAHARSHI DAYANAND UNIVERSITY, ROTHAK

August 2013


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DECLARATION

I, Laxmi Swarupa, Roll No: 106 / Semester III/ Class of 2012-14 student of MBA (POWER

MANAGEMENT) at National Power Training Institute, Faridabad hereby declare that the

Summer Training Report entitled -

“Regression Analysis of Operational Efficiency Parameters on Management Practices of

Thermal Power Plants”

is an original work and the same has not been submitted to any other Institute for the

award of any other degree.

A Seminar presentation of the Training Report was made on _______________________

and the suggestions as approved by the faculty were duly incorporated.

Presentation In charge Signature of the Candidate

(Faculty)

Countersigned

Director/Principal of the Institute


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Words can never be enough to express my true regards to all those who have helped me in

completing this project. I take this opportunity to thank all those who have been instrumental

in successful completion of my training.

I am highly obliged to Mr. J.S.S. Rao, Principal Director, Corporate Affairs, NPTI, Mr. S.K

Choudhary, Principal Director (CAMPS) NPTI, Mrs. Manju Mam, Director, NPTI, and

Mrs. Indu Maheshwari, Deputy Director, NPTI who gave me the opportunity to do summer

internship in a pioneer organization like Administrative Staff College of India. I would

again like to thank my internal Guide Dr. Manisha for helping me and guiding me

throughout my project.I would like to thank Dr . Usha Ramachandran ( Chairperson , Energy Area) who always

took out time from her busy schedule and provided me with excellent insights and

suggestions in my project , which encouraged me for further excellence.

I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my mentor and guide, Mr Rajkir an V Bilolikar

(Assistant Professor , Energy Ar ea) , who not only extended his precious guidance and

suggestions but his incredible help coupled with relentless efforts, constructive criticism and

timely disapprobation‟s resulted in this project report. I also thank him for providing me such

a nice opportunity to work with an esteemed organisation like ASCI.

I also thank Dr. Sutanuka Dev Roy (Associate Professor , Centre for Economics and

Finance) for helping me out with my analysis.Without her I would have never gained

confidence in my quantitative analysis.

I place on record my deep sense of gratitude to the management of ASCI for giving me an

opportunity to pursue my summer training in their organization and for their valuable

support. I also thank the whole staff of ASCI for making my stay there pleasurable.

I am grateful to my friends who gave me the moral support in my times of difficulties. Last

but not the least I would like to express my special thanks to my family for their continuous

motivation and support.

Laxmi Swarupa


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ....................................................................................................................... 1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ......................................................................................................... 2TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................... 3

LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................................... 5

LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................... 6

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................... 7

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................................... 8

OBJECTIVE .............................................................................................................................. 9

1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 9

1.1.INDIAN ELECTRICITY SECTOR – BRIEF HISTORICAL REVIEW ........................ 9

1.2.TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES .................................................................................. 16

1.3. MAN MW RATIOS DURING VARIOUS PLAN PERIODS ..................................... 21

1.4. CERC NORMS FOR VARIOUS SIZED THERMAL UNITS .................................... 22

1.5. MANAGERIAL EFFICIENCY AND CONCERNED PARAMETERS ..................... 26

1.6. OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS AND AWARDS SCHEME .... 27

1.7. ORGANISATIONAL PROFILE .............................................................................. 29

2. LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................... 31

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY......................................................................................... 32

1.1. DATA COLLECTION .............................................................................................. 32

3.1.1. IDENTIFICATION AND FILTERATION OF MANAGERIAL AND

OPERATIONAL DATA SETS ....................................................................................... 33

3.1.2. SIGNIFICANCE OF PARAMETERS USED ................................................... 33

3.1.3 DATA SOURCING ................................................................................................. 36

4. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION .............................................................. 36

4.1. QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS ................................................................................... 37

4.2. QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS USING REGRESSION TOOLS ........................... 39

5. CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................................................. 43

6. RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................. 44

7. LIMITATIONS ................................................................................................................ 45

8. BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................ 46

9. ANNEXURES : ................................................................................................................ 47


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Annexure 1 : PLF EXCEL ANALYSIS SHEET ............................................................... 47

Annexure 3 : SHR ANALYSIS EXCEL SHEET ............................................................... 49

Annexure 4 : QUALITATIVE MEASUREMENT DATA SHEET ................................... 50

Annexure 5 : MEASUREMENT SCALES ......................................................................... 50

Annexure 6 : RANK WISE SEGREGATION OF UNITS. ................................................ 53

10. REGRESSION ANALYSIS SHEETS……………………………………………….…..37


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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 : MAN MW RATIO AT THE END OF VARIOUS PLAN PERIODS (PREDICTED FOR2012 ) .................................................................................................................................................... 22

Table 2: CERC OPERATING NORMS FOR TPSs. ............................................................................ 23

Table 3 : CRITERIA FOR ASSIGNING AWARDS TO THERMAL POWER PLANTS ................ 29

Table 4 : WEIGHTAGE OF EACH PARAMETER ............................................................................ 29

Table 5 LIST OF UNITS TAKEN UNDER STUDY ........................................................................... 33

Table 6 : RANKING OF PLANTS AFTER QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE

PARAMETERS WERE TAKEN TOGETHER. .................................................................................. 41


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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 : TRAVELLING THROUGH HISTORY ................................................................................ 9

Figure 2: UNIT SIZES AND THEIR GROSS DESIGN EFFICIENCY .............................................. 14

Figure 3 : TECHNOLOGIES IN THERMAL GENERATION ........................................................... 18

Figure 4 ................................................................................................................................................. 27

Figure 5 : FIVE STEP APPROACH ADOPTED FOR THE PREPARATION OF THE REPORT .... 32

Figure 6 : DATA ANALYSIS STEPS .................................................................................................. 37

Figure 7 : PLF TREND OF TOP PERFORMING UNIT FROM EACH SIZE. ................................... 39

Figure 8 : RANKING OF PLANTS AFTER QUALITATIVE AFTER QUANTITAIVE

PARAMETERS WERE TAKEN TOGETHER. .................................................................................. 41


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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AEC Auxiliary Energy Consumption

ASCI Administrative Staff College of India

BU Billion Units

CERC Central Electricity Regulatory Commission

CEA Central Electricity Authority

SERC State Electricity Regulatory Commission

NTPC National Thermal Power Corporation

GHG Green House Gas

MW Mega Watt

PLF Plant Load Factor

SHR Station Heat Rate

Kwh Kilo Watt HourBHEL Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd

M-BFP Motor driven Boiler Feed Pump

T-BFP Turbine driven Boiler Feed Pump

PAF Plant Availability Factor

NEP Net Electricity Produced

CV Calorific Value

CII Confederation of Indian Industry

TPS Thermal Power Station

QM Quality Management

SM Safety ManagementESP Environment Sensitive Practices

PLC Programmable Logic Controllers

SCADA Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition

System


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Power sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in India , which essentially supports the

economic growth. The power sector needs to grow at the rate of 12% to maintain the GDP

growth of 8%.Presently the energy deficit is about 8.3% and the power shortage during peak

period is about 12.5%.In the present scenario apart from the capacity augmentation, there is

an immense need to improve the performance of generating units. But for improving and then

sustaining plant performance and at the same time meeting the regulatory requirements,

appropriate maintenance activities properly integrated with plant operation activities is

needed.

But this requires thinking in strategic and economic rather than purely technical terms. This

is not easy for power plant operators, which is heavily dominated by Engineers with a

“technical mind-set”. But even before we make these judgements we need to know what are

the factors that affect the plant performance apart from technical aspects of plant Operation

and Maintenance activities.

Plant management practises are not a fixed set of activities that is same at every power plant.

And this is one of the reasons why plant performance varies so much from one to other.The

purpose of this report is to identify those management activities and provide stakeholders and

utilities with information regarding the practices that will result in their plant performance

enhancement.

This project follows this sequence:

Taking sample plant size of each capacity starting from lowest capacity unit present to

highest capacity thermal generating unit present in India.

Collecting their last ten years data of AEC , SHR and PLF and analysing them to find

out is there any trend that is coming out with plant size and its efficiency.

Now some managerial practices were selected and then again comparison was made

to find out if the best performing plant on operational parameters are the ones having

good management practices.

To verify the qualitative analysis results two set of statistical tools were used : first

ranking method was used in which quantitative and qualitative parameters were

merged together by forming a scale and the plants were given ranks.


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Since these ranks and our qualitative analysis results pointed towards the same fact ,

Regression analysis tool was used to provide a quantitative proof for the finding.

At the end key recommendations has been made and limitations of the project has

also been provided with.

OBJECTIVE

Objective of this project is to identify the key practises that will enhance the thermal power

plant performance and the significance of these factors in overall plant performance.Also tofind out how age and plant size affects the operational parameters of the power plant.

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1.INDIAN ELECTRICITY SECTOR – BRIEF HISTORICAL REVIEW

Figure 1 : TRAVELLING THROUGH HISTORY


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When India became independent in 1947, the country had a power generating capacity

of 1,362 MW, growth has been tremendous with present installed capacity being 211766.22

MW1 as on 1st August 2013. Similarly the size of the generating unit in the country in coal

based power stations has progressively increased from about 15 MW prior to the era of

planned development to 800 MW at present2.

With the introduction of new design of generating units, certain difficulties arose in their

efficient operation and maintenance. The availability of coal in the country is such that the

higher grades of coal, which have higher calorific value, have been exhausted and

progressively lower grades of coal are being made available for electricity generation in the

power stations. This had resulted into operational problems with the boilers designed for

higher grades of coal and also put more pressure on coal handling plants etc.

The all India Thermal PLF which was as low as 27% at the beginning of First Plan,

progressively increased to 47.% by the year 1963-64 and then declined to around 42% by

early seventies. During one year in the seventies i.e. during 1976-77, the PLF touched 55.4%

but this could not be sustained during subsequent years. Several factors such as inadequate

maintenance of generating units, the teething troubles faced in the operation of the newly

introduced 200/210 MW units and the deterioration in the quality of coal supplied to power

stations led to a gradual erosion in the PLF of the thermal power plants during 5th plan

period. During the 6 thPlan, Department of Power and Central Electricity Authority undertook

a comprehensive programme to renovate and modernize old units located in different States.

The performance of 200/210 MW units also begin to stabilize. Concerted efforts were made

by Ministry of Coal to monitor quality of coal supplies to power plants. As a result of all

these measures the PLF of thermal plants registered a gradual improvement during the

7th plan period. The plant load factor of thermal power stations in the country, which was

only 44.2% in 1980-81, increased to 56.5% by the end of the 7th Plan. The all India Average

PLF of the Thermal Power Plants has further increased to 64.4% by the end of eighth plan

and in year 2009-10 an avg of 77.5% was reached.

Power Sector is at a crucial juncture of its evolution from a controlled environment to a

competitive, market driven regime which endeavours to provide affordable, reliable and

quality power at reasonable prices to all sectors of the economy. For a developing country

1

Figures taken from Ministry of Power website.2 Indianpowersector.com


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like India, development of the power sector is very important towards achieving sustainable

growth. The demand for electricity in India is enormous and is growing steadily. The vast

Indian Power Market, today offers highest growth opportunities for private developers and

investors. Since gaining independence from the British rule, the Indian Power Sector has come a

really long way. It has grown many folds in size and capacity. The installed capacity has

increased from a meagre 1362 MW in 1947 to almost 200 GW as on 31st May, 2012.

The demand for electricity in the country has been growing at a rapid rate and is expected to grow

further in the years to come. The energy availability in the country has increased by 6% in 2011-

12, while the peak demand met has increased by 6% in the same period. Despite the increase in

availability, India faced an energy deficit of 10.3% and a peak deficit of 12.9 % in 2011-12.

The average per capita consumption of electricity in India is a mere 478 kWh2 (2010),

compared to the world average of 2,300 kWh. The other comparable countries, like the other

BRIC nations, have significantly higher per capita consumption compared to India. The

average per-capita consumption has grown steadily at 1.3% CAGR annually over the last 10

years.

The power sector in India is basically divided into three categories :

Generation

Transmission

Distribution

GENERATION

The installed capacity of India is 206456 MW as on 31 st July, 2011 as per Ministry of Power,Government of India. It has the fifth largest generation capacity constituting to about 4 % of the

Global Power Generation behind USA, Japan, China & Russia (Former U.S.S.R.) which

contribute to about 49 % of the total Global generation. The generation constitutes of Thermal,

Hydel, Nuclear and Renewable sources of generation. The Generation sector can also be divided

on basis of generators. Generators are divided in three sectors as private , central and state

entities which can be further divided into categories based on type of fuel usage viz. Coal, Oil

and Gas.


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It is estimated that the total capacity demand in the next 20 years will cross 950000 MW

which is close to 5 times the current installed capacity. Hence the government will have to

draw up big capacity addition plans and ensure their implementation. The government had set

an ambitious target of 75 GW in the 12th Five Year plan (2012-17). But looking at the

present scenario of fuel shortage, erratic gas supply and low confidence on nuclear fuels due

to Japan calamity, the government will not be able to achieve the desired target. Therefore, it

is imperative for the government to step up their efforts considerably to get close to that

target.

The government has planned big capacity addition projects like Ultra Mega Power Plants

(UMPPs) and other supercritical projects to achieve the capacity addition targets. Already 4

UMPP‟s are in construction phase and 7 other UMPPs are planned to be commissioned in the

12th plan. The first supercritical unit commissioned in Mundra (Gujarat) in March, 2012.

Many supercritical projects are also expected to start operating by the end of 12th plan. So

targets have been set but it remains to be seen how much is implemented.

TRANSMISSION

The Transmission sector in India has also come a long way since independence. From 3705

ckm in 1950, it is now around 265000 ckm (2011). The country was divided into five

regional grids namely Northern, Southern, North Eastern, Eastern and Western grid. Now the

Northern, North Eastern, Eastern and Western Grid have been merged to form the NEW grid

and hence there are two grids now, NEW and Southern grids. Since the main focus will be on

increasing the installed capacity, investments in the transmission sector are expected to pick up in

the next decade. The government is planning to add inter regional transmission links of about

38,000 MW during 12th plan. Thus inter regional capacity at the end of the 12th plan is expected to

be of order of 63,000 MW. The government should invite private players in the transmission

sector to help achieve this target as the current work is only carried out by public utility PGCIL

and hence is slow. Private players would speed up the work considerably.

DISTRIBUTION

The biggest problem the distribution sector faces is the high amount of AT&C (Aggregate

Technical & Commercial Losses) which are roughly around 33 %. Many reforms have been

introduced in the distribution sector like unbundling of State Electricity Boards to introduction of


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private players and franchisee models to overcome the problem. Although some progress has

been made in reducing the losses, the loss levels are still high and pose a great challenge for the

distribution companies to move forward.

The different bodies concerning the power sector and their functions are as shown in the chart

below :

FUNCTIONS CENTRAL STATEPLANNING & ADVISORY PLANNING COMMISSION,

EGOM, NATIONAL

DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL,

PARLIAMENTARY

COMMITTEE ON ENERGY

STATE GOVERNMENT

CONCERNED MINISTRIES MINISTRY OF POWER, MNRE,

MINISTRY OF COAL,MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT

& FOREST, MINISTRY OF

PETROLEUM & GAS.

STATE GOVERNMENT

AUTHORITY CEA REGIONAL POWER SURVEY

OFFICES (RPSOs)

REGULATION CERC SERCs

GENERATION NTPC, NHPC, NEEPCO, THDC,

NJPC, DVC, NPCIL

STATE UTILITIES, IPPs

SCHEDULING & DESPATCH NLDC, RLDCs SLDCs

TRANSMISSION PGCIL STUs

DISTRIBUTION ------- STATE DISCOMS, PRIVATE

DISCOMS, FRANCHISEES

FINANCE PFC, REC, NATIONALISED

BANKS,PRIVATE BANKS

STATE COOPERATIVE BANKS,

STATE LEVEL PRIVATE BANKSTRADING PTC, POWER EXCHANGES

(PXIL, IEX)

------

APPLEAL APPELLATE TRIBUNAL,

SUPREME COURT

------

RESEARCH & TRAINING CPRI , NPTI

Table 1:INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE OF POWER SECTOR IN INDIA

The table above shows the Indian power sectors post Electricity Act 2003 and reforms.

Looking at it, the Indian Power sector is a well organized structure with different bodies for

different functions. But due to lack of proper coordination between different sectors andorganizations, the set targets are not met and hence the government is always short on the set

targets.


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Figure 2: UNIT SIZES AND THEIR GROSS DESIGN EFFICIENCY3

TYPE OF POWER PLANTS IN INDIA :

Power plants are facilities where power is generated on a large scale. In India the operating

power plants are mainly divided on basis of the method or fuel used. The main power plants

are Thermal Power Plants (Based on Coal, Oil or Gas), Hydro Power Plants & Nuclear Power

Plants.

1. THERMAL POWER PLANTS: - Thermal Power plants are power plants which use

Coal, Gas or Oil as fuel. Thermal Power constitute of about 67% of the total

generation capacity in India. Coal based Thermal Power plants constitute of about

56.8%, Gas based about 9.2% and Oil based about 0.6% out of the total installed

capacity in India. Most of the Coal based Thermal Power plants in operation are based

on Sub-critical Technology. The efficiency of these plants is in the range of 30-35%.

Sub-critical Technology also finds a place in many proposed and upcoming power

projects. Thermal Power projects in India are mainly under NTPC Ltd and State

Utilities. However there are many private thermal power projects which are in

operation and many are in proposition.

3 National Electricity Plan : Volum 1 Generation , January 2012 issue.

-5

5

15

25

35

45

30-50 60-100 210 LMZ 210 KWU 250 500 660 800

G R O S S D E S I G N E

F F I C I E N

C Y

UNIT SIZE


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2. HYDRO POWER PLANTS: - Hydro Power plants constitute of about 19.03 % of

the total installed capacity in India. In hydroelectric power plants the potential energy

of water due to its high location is converted into electrical energy. The total power

generation capacity of the hydroelectric power plants depends on the head of water

and volume of water flowing towards the water turbine. It is the most widely used

form of renewable energy. Once a hydroelectric complex is constructed, the project

produces no direct waste, and has a considerably lower output level of the greenhouse

gas carbon dioxide (CO2) than fossil fuel powered energy plants. Hydro Power

projects are mainly looked after by National Hydroelectric Power Commission

(NHPC) and state utilities and are mostly located in the northern parts of the country .

3. NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS: - Nuclear Power is the fourth-largest source of

electricity in India after thermal, hydro and renewable sources of electricity. As of

2011, India has 20 nuclear power plants in operation generating 4780 MW while 3

other are under construction and are expected to generate an additional 4800 MW.

India is also involved in the development of fusion reactors through its participation

in the ITER project. Nuclear power projects are looked after by Nuclear Power

Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL).

FUEL CONSUMPTION

More than 60 percent of the thermal power generation is coal based and in few cases oil is

used in conjunction as a secondary fuel to facilitate burning or as an alternative option in time

of constrained availability and in few plants due to use of low quality coal.

Limit has been specified in CERC tariff regulations for secondary fuel oil consumption as 1

ml/KWh in case of coal based generating stations. Similarly, for non CFBC based lignite

based generating stations, the limit has been specified as 2 ml/KWh and for CFBC based

lignite generating stations it is 1.25 ml/KWh. Moreover, for DVC generating stations, limits

have specified on particular station basis. Fuel consumption accounts for more than a quarter

of cost of power generated and with constraints in the availability of coal due to inability of

CIL to increase production and growing prices of oil and gases, globally are forcing

developers and government to take necessary steps to enhance plant efficiency and operating

life.


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It is evident from the operational parameters of the generating utilities that there is an urgent

need of further improvement in these parameters, particularly in case of older and inefficient

power plants. R&M of these plants can be considered as it offers significant improvements in

the overall performance, efficiency, expected life span and possess enough advantages as

compared to other alternatives like Greenfield projects or in setting up a new generation

plant.

It is therefore important for the developers to know in detail the overall improvement in

various performance parameters can be achieved by Renovation & Modernisation which

includes R&M, Life Extension (LE), Uprating and newly introduced Energy Efficient R&M.

CONSTRAINTS FACED BY POWER PROJECTS

Although many power projects are operating across the country, the efficiency of these plants

is considerably low (in the range of 28% - 33%). These power projects are also facing many

constraints affecting their performance and operation. Some of the major constraints can be

listed as

1. Operations and Maintenance

2. Renovation and Modernization

3. Issues related to securing of fuel4. Re-financing of many plants

5. Consistency in supply to the grid

6. Carbon footprints

1.2.TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES

During the last decade several developments have taken place , which are :

1. Considerable improvements have been made in turbine designs, due to improved

blade profiles thus leading to lower heat rates. For the same steam parameters , the

turbine cycle heat rate have been reduced by 30-40 kcal/kWh as compared to earlier

design due to use of more efficient blade designs.

2. While the turbine cycle heat rate of 210 MW turbine supplied by BHEL earlier were

about 1980 kcal/kWh, the turbine cycle heat rate of 250 MW machines being supplied

now is about 1950 kcal/kWh. Similarly for 500 MW machines, turbine heat rates have


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improved from 1980 kcal/kWh to 1945 kcal/kWh. It may be added here that heat rates

indicated above for 210/250 MW sets are with motor driven BFP whereas same for

500 MW machine corresponds to turbine driven BFP. Thus the heat rates for both

210 and 500 MW units have reduced appreciably.

3. Units from several inter-national manufacturers have been inducted in the Indian

power sector and the share of such units is gradually increasing.

4. Apart from 210/250 & 500 MW units mostly prevailing earlier, units of other sizes

like 300 MW, 600 MW and higher size supercritical units (660 & 800 MW) have

either been introduced or else are in the introduction stage. The turbine heat rate for

300 MW Units is about 1920 kcal/kWh which is much lower than prevailing heat

rates of comparable size units in the country of 250 MW capacity.

5. Even for the same unit size, different steam parameters are being adopted – for

example, instead of 150 kg/cm2 , 535/535˚C parameter normally is being adopted

for 250 MW units, NLC for their recent 250 MW units have adopted 170 kg/cm2

537/537 deg.C steam cycle. Higher reheat temperature of 565 deg.C is being adopted

in some new 500 MW units like Dadri thermal power project of NTPC. The 300 MW

units also have 170 kg/cm2 steam parameters.

6. In the bidding held for 800 MW supercritical units, there was a difference of over 25-

30 kcal/kWh in the guaranteed turbine cycle heat rates quoted by the two bidders.

7. Also , the role of imported coal has taken an important position in indian power sector

with more utilities using imported coal. Imported coal because of their superior

quality lead to a higher boiler efficiency by 2-3 percentage points, thus lowering the

unit heat rate of about 50-75 kcal/kWh.


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Figure 3 : TECHNOLOGIES IN THERMAL GENERATION

SUPERCRITICAL TECHNOLOGY : Super-critical units which provide better plant

efficiency have been operational in the world for the last three decades in various unit sizes

ranging from 500 to 1300 MW. Most of the super critical units are operating in USA, Russia,

Japan, Germany, Italy & South Korea. Design of these units vary from manufacturer to

manufacturer in regard to boiler configuration (two pass or tower type), type of water wall

tubing (vertical or spiral, bare or rifled) start up system etc. So far in India, we do not have

any operating plant with supercritical parameters.

Many units of 660 MW capacity are now planned with supercritical technology at Sipat, Barh

etc. However, with a view to decide on optimal size and supercritical parameters of the

thermal units to be inducted in the Indian power sector based on various technoeconomic

considerations, the “Committee to recommend the next higher unit size for Coal Fired

Thermal Power Stations” was constituted by the Central Electricity Authority with

representatives from utilities, manufacturers, Ministry of Power and Planning Commission.

The Committee in its report has recommended 800- 1000 MW as the next higher size of Unit

with Super Critical parameters in view of the advantages which are brought out in the report.


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CIRCULATING FLUIDISED BED COMBUSTION TECHNOLOGY : CFBC

technology used for power plant applications entails higher cost as compared to PC

technology. However, cost is comparable when PC technology necessitates installation of

FGD system. World over, maximum size of CFBC units is around 300 MW. First 250 MW

unit was installed in France (Gardanne) in 1995. Currently, quite a few 250 MW units are

operating using different fuels viz. coal, lignite, petcoke etc. CFBC technology has

selectively been applied in India for firing lignite.

Following power stations in India have adopted CFBC technology:

* Surat lignite (2x125 MW) - under

operation

* Akrimota (2x125 MW) - under

installation

* Neyveli (2x250 MW) - under installation

INTEGRATED GASIFICATION COMBINED CYCLE : Integrated Gasification

Combined Cycle (IGCC) System is one of the clean coal technologies in which coal is

converted into gaseous fuel which after cleaning is used in CCGT plants. The IGCC systems,

which are commercially available have shown higher efficiencies and exceptionally good

environmental performance in Sox removal, Nox reduction and particulate removal. IGCC, if

commercially proven, will be one of the most attractive power generation technologies for the

21st century. Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle technology is also being considered in

view of the development of advanced gas turbines with very high efficiencies. The Project

Advisory Group set up by MOP with Chairman CEA as its Chairman, submitted its Report

during Jan, 1999 for setting up a 100 MW IGCC demonstration Project either at NTPC Dadrior at Kaperkheda TPS of MSEB. NTPC Dadri was ranked No. 1 in order of Preference. An

Inter-Ministerial Steering Group under the Chairmanship of Secretary (Power) was

constituted with the approval of Union Minister of State for Power (Independent charge) for

monitoring the IGCC Demonstration Project. The Group which included CEA also

wasintended to establish clearly whether the establishing the economics of the project and for

initiating measures for setting up a demonstration project. The group decided that a 100 MW

IGCC demonstration plant will be set up at NTPC, Auraiya jointly by BHEL and NTPC.


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COMBINED CYCLE TECHNOLOGY : With increased availability of natural gas/ LNG,

it is but natural to install combined cycle plants because of various inherent advantages such

as short gestation period, less space requirement, environment friendly native and easy to

operate & control. There has been a steady progress in combustion turbine technology with

availability of large capacity advanced class higher efficiency gas turbines in the range upto

330 MW ratings and single shaft machines. The performance of gas turbine technology has

improved dramatically over the past twenty years. The thermal efficiency of gas turbine

power systems has more than doubled at the same time reliability has improved and emission

levels have decreased significantly. The thermodynamic improvements that have allowed for

such a dramatic increase in gas turbine efficiency have been identified as rise in Gas Turbines

inlet temperature pressure, multi-pressure steam supply, and optimization of losses.

FUEL CELL TECHNOLOGY : Fuel cells are electro-chemical devices that convert energy

from fuel directly into electricity through electrochemical reactions. These cells normally use

hydrogen directly as fuel or as derived from natural gas or other hydro carbons. About 4-5

major technologies for fuel cells are in various stages of development worldwide. A fuel cell

development programme is under way in India under the ageis of Ministry of Non-

conventional Energy Sources and several organizations like BHEL, SPIC, Indian Institute of

Science, Bangalore, Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute, Calcutta have undertook

research projects for development of various technologies of fuel cells indigenously. M/s

BHEL are in the process of developing 25 kW fuel cell stack with Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell

(PAFC) technology. A study to observe performance of imported 200 kW fuel cells stack

under Indian conditions is also in progress at BHEL. M/s SPIC are in the process of

developing 5 KW solid polymer fuel cells stacks. M/s Electrochemical Institute, are engaged

in Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC) technology. Project for development of direct

methanol fuel cell is in progress at IISc., Bangalore under a UNDP research programme. Fuel

cell applications include distributed generation in hospitals, airports, research institutes etc.

Apart from power generation, variants of fuel cell also find applications for transport in

electric driven vehicles.


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1.3. MAN MW RATIOS DURING VARIOUS PLAN PERIODS

While large-scale investments have been planned and numerous projects are underway, the lack of

competent manpower to execute these projects and subsequently operate and maintain them is

already being felt. The scarcity is increasing by the day and unless the Government, industry and all

other stakeholders invest in attracting and training the available talent on an urgent basis, it has the

potential to become a major bottleneck and derail the rapid growth in the sector that has just

begun. This report addresses some of the key human resource challenges in the power sector today

and lays out strategies for attracting fresh talent, retaining existing manpower and creating the

necessary infrastructure for sustained training and development.

The total manpower in the power sector at the end of 10th plan was approximately 9.5 lakhs as per thereport of the Planning Commission‟s Working Group on Power for 11 th Plan. Even in a scenario

where employee productivity is projected to increase leading to decreasing Man/MW ratio, it is

estimated that over five lakh technical manpower and 1.5 lakh non-technical manpower need to be

inducted into the sector in the 11th and 12th plan periods. In addition to the technical manpower, tens of

thousands of highly skilled managers will be required in areas such as project planning and

management, project monitoring, project finance, contracts and materials management, human

resources management etc. Further, with increasing focus on energy efficiency and renewable energy,

there is an opportunity to productively engage millions of people to participate in harnessing small

hydro, biomass & biofuels, solar and wind resources, provided they have the appropriate specialised

knowledge. Moreover, demand side management, power trading, carbon credits, smart grids etc. will

also require manpower with specialised training. One of the key hindrances to ensuring adequate

manpower for the sector is the lack of training infrastructure. While infrastructure for Thermal

induction is sufficient, it is grossly inadequate for Hydro and Power System induction. Further

infrastructure for Refresher Training required for updating skills and knowledge is just 3% of the

required capacity and is a key reason for inadequate availability of manpower with right skills and

competencies. Most importantly, there is huge deficit in infrastructure for managerial training, which

currently caters only to 4% of the requirements. This has a significant impact in decision making

capabilities, efficiency and effectiveness of organisations. At a time when the sector is undergoing

rapid growth amidst a changing environment, lack of managerial competencies would hamper the

ability of organisations to adapt and grow. In such a scenario, it is important that managerial talent is

oriented towards commercial, social and environmental aspects of the industry. Some of the strategies

outlined in this report for creating human capital for the power sector are :

• Attract talent by showcasing opportunities, improving brand image and changing the work

environment


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• Expand training to cover beahavioral & attitudinal changes Strengthen ITIs and other vocational

skill development centres

• Standardise curriculum and develop certification standards

• Expand existing training facilities and create new infrastructure

• Ensure proper utilisation of training funds through direct reimbursements

END OF PLAN PERIOD OVERALL THERMAL

9th

9.42 1.78

10

th

7.00 1.4411

th 5.82 1.16

12th

4.93 0.97

Table 2 : MAN MW RATIO AT THE END OF VARIOUS PLAN PERIODS

(PREDICTED FOR 2012 )4

The current norm for operation and maintenance of thermal generation projects is 1.1 Man

per MW.

1.4. CERC NORMS FOR VARIOUS SIZED THERMAL UNITS

Till the entry of central sector in the power generation in 1975, most of the generation was

with the State Electricity Boards (SEBs) which were vertically integrated entities having

generation, transmission and distribution under common fold and unified accounting. Thus,

the issue of transfer pricing from generation to transmission did not exist. With the entry of

Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) the Central Government had to determine the

tariff of generating stations set up in the central sector and need was felt for prescribing the

normative parameters for generation unit heat rate, secondary fuel consumption, auxiliary

energy consumption to work out the price of power to the beneficiary States. Thus, K.P Rao

committee was set up which prescribed operation norms for the stations under the CPSUs .

With the entry of private sector in power generation, the States started entering into Power

Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with the Independent Power Producers (IPPs). With a view to

maintain uniformity regarding operational parameters in the PPAs and also to guide the

4 Report of Working Group on Power for 12

th Plan.


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States in this regard, comprehensive financial and operation norms were notified by the

Government of India (GOI) in March, 1992.

UNIT SIZE TARGETPLF/AVAILABILITY

(%)

OHR(Kcal/Kwh) AEC(%) SOC(ml/Kwh)

LESS THAN

200

80 2600 With cooling tower 9%

Without cooling tower 8.5%

2.0

200/210/250 80 2500 With cooling tower 9%


2.0

500 MW

UNITS WITHTD-BFP

80 2450 With cooling tower 7.5%

Without cooling tower 7%

2.0

500 MW

UNITS WITH

MD-BFP

80 2410 With cooling tower 9%


2.0

Table 3: CERC OPERATING NORMS FOR TPSs.5

Later these norms were clarified to be ceiling norms and states could negotiate better norms

with the IPPs. Central Electricity Authority in 1997 prepared operation norms which

prescribed a framework to identify all the site specific and equipment specific factors and

incorporate them in the norms.

These norms specified:-

• Turbine heat rates corresponding to different PLF (100,

80, 60 & 50 percent)

• Working out boiler efficiency based on fuel quality, etc.

These norms were adopted by CERC as draft norms for central sector stations and were

circulated for public comments. Considering the diverse opinion expressed by the generating

utilities, CERC inter-alia directed the prevailing norms of 1992 be allowed for next 3 years

with effect from 1.4.2001.Subsequently in 2004 CERC revised the operating norms and then

again in 2009 , which is prevalent till now.

The Electricity Act 2003 provides that The Central Government shall, from time to time,

prepare the “National Electricity Policy” and “Tariff Policy”, in consultation with the State

5 Norms of Operation for tariff period 2009-14 by CEA.


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Governments and the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) for development of the power

system based on optimal utilization of resources such as coal, natural gas etc. It also

provides that, the Central Commission, in discharge of its functions shall be guided by the

National Electricity Policy, National Electricity Plan and Tariff Policy. The Tariff Policy

notified by the Central Government provides that The Central Commission would, in

consultation with the Central Electricity Authority, notify operating norms from time to time

for generation and transmission.

The basic objective of operation norms is to lay down the benchmarks or standards of

operation efficiency to be followed by the generating companies (GENCO) for the purpose of

determination of tariff. It is thus an exercise towards balancing the interests of consumers and

the GENCOS allowing for reasonable constraints faced during plant operation.

The tariff policy provides that “Suitable performance norms of operations together with

incentives and dis-incentives would need be evolved along with appropriate arrangement for

sharing the gain of efficient operations with the consumers”. It also provides that “In cases

where operations have been much below the norms for many previous years the initial

starting point in determining the revenue requirements

and the improvement trajectories should be recognized at “relaxed” levels and not the

“desired” levels”.

Thus, in keeping with the objective of the tariff policy, the operation norms should

progressively provide for more efficient operation barring select cases of relaxations where

the desired norms cannot be applied.

The operation efficiency or heat rate and other performance parameters of a thermal power

station depend on a number of factors which can be broadly classified as follows:-

a) Technology and Equipment

b) Ambient conditions

c) Fuel quality

d) Plant operation and maintainance practices.

Thus any benchmarking exercise has to consider these factors fornormative operational

performance. As brought out above at Para 3.1, considerable variations exist in the unit sizes,

steam parameters for similar unit sizes and fuel quality amongst various operating units and

units likely to be inducted in future. Super-critical units of 660/800 MW are being introduced


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where the heat rates are considerably better than the 500 and 600 MW units and thus, the

present norms of 500 MW units would not be applicable for these units. The benchmarking

exercise has to adequately provide for all these variations.

Possible approaches for specifying operation norms could be :

(i) Uniform single value norm for all stations

(ii) Norm in terms of % of design value

Uniform single value norm for all stations

The single value norms have presently been prescribed by CERC for station heat rate,

auxiliary energy consumption and secondary fuel oil consumption. The single value may be

expressed as either as absolute number as done in case of station heat rate and SFC or as a

percentage as done for AEC. Such norms are appropriate for

parameters like secondary fuel oil consumption (SFC) and auxiliary energy consumption

(AEC) which do not vary significantly with the unit size or other technological parameters.

However, the single value concept has limitations when applied to operating parameters like

the unit heat rate. As explained at Para 3 above, a large variations in heat rate exist due to

different equipment design, steam parameters, design fuel quality etc. Even for same unit size

& steam parameters, the heat rates vary due to improvements affected by the suppliers

progressively over time and therefore, considerable variations exist in heat rates offered by

different manufacturers for same unit size-steam parameters. Also even with the same

turbine generator, the unit heat rate could vary significantly at two different sites due to large

variations in coal quality, cooling water temperature, etc. Thus even with the same equipment

efficiency, a station could have considerably higher design unit heat rate due to site specific

factors beyond his control and the normative heat rate based on single value concept would

provide much lower operational margin to such a station.

Thus, while adopting a single value norm for heat rate covering such large variations,

considerations are invariably required to be made to accommodate the worst combinations of

turbine cycle heat rate, boiler efficiency. This leads to considerable variation in the margin

available to different utilities between the operating heat rate and design heat rate.

Thus, the single value concept provides very high cushion for operational variation (or leads

to high savings to units with lower design heat rates) and leads to undue penalty to those with

higher design heat rates which could be for reasons beyond the control of utility like coal

quality and cooling water temperature. Thus, instead of rewarding operational efficiency,


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which should be the aim of any good benchmarking exercise, it rewards better designs or

better site inputs where the operator reaps the benefits of intrinsic advantages of the

equipment or site environment or coal quality without major operational efforts. However,

this approach provides incentive to the project developer to go for more efficient design and

technologies which may result in higher capital cost. In the

cost plus approach this will result in higher fixed charges for such units which will be passed

on to the beneficiaries of the project. However, the benefit of higher efficiency in operation

may not be passed on to the beneficiaries and may be retained by the project developer.

Norm in terms of % of design value

The other approach could be to specify the normative parameter as a certain percentage abovethe design parameters of the unit. The design heat rate indicates the intrinsic capability or the

best achievable efficiency of any generating unit. Such an approach automatically provides

for consideration of variations in design/technology, ambient

conditions and fuel quality in the norms and thus provides more rational basis for operation

norms specially in the developing scenario with large variations in design of the units. It also

provides for incentive to the project developers to achieve better operational efficiencies.

However, in this approach there is no incentive to the developer to adopt more efficient

designs/technologies as the entire benefit of having more

efficient designs/technologies is passed on to the beneficiaries. Thus, it is suggested that

while single value approach may be continued for specifying norms for AEC and SFC, the %

over design approach may be followed for specifying Unit Heat Rate with some benchmark

values for different unit sizes to ensure minimum efficiency standards in the future units by

the project developers.

1.5. MANAGERIAL EFFICIENCY AND CONCERNED PARAMETERS

Managerial Efficiency is the full measure of the combined effect of management, teaming,

and leadership skills on corporate productivity6. In the journal Assessment of Managerial

Efficiency , it is said that “The Managerial Efficiency is a comparative valuation of the

utilized resources versus the results achieved by the managerial activities that is by the

6 Managerial Efficiency : A product of leadership,management and teaming skills , by Simon R Mouer , PHD ,

PE.


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manager ”.It also says that Managerial Efficiency is a comparative or relative factor and in no

way is it an absolute value or a standard of any kind that could be applied in any

circumstances. While talking in context of power plants managerial efficiency can be talked

in terms of how efficient plant maintenance practises are and are they helping the plant

perform better ! It can also be defined as getting the job done using minimum resources to

produce maximum output.

Figure 4

1.6. OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS AND AWARDS

SCHEME

The electric power plant efficiency η is defined as the ratio between useful electricity output

from the generating unit, in a specific time unit, and the energy value of the energy source

supplied to the unit, within the same time.

Power station efficiency η = NEP/CV


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The energy efficiency of thermal power plant is defined as the ratio of saleable energy to the

heating value of the fuel consumed. This overall efficiency of the plant is calculated as the

product of boiler, turbine, generator and the condensed efficiency.

Most of the thermal power plants are 30-40 years old and are operating at a level of 20-35

percent level due to the use of outdated technologies and depreciation of installed equipments

for the operating year‟s .In comparison to thermal plants, the efficiency of hydro power plants

is much higher, being around 85-90 percent.

The efficiency of the hydro power plant is limited due to losses by flow disturbances, friction

and design inefficiencies in turbine and the generator.

There are different technologies that can be pursued to improve the efficiency of thermal

power plants such as supercritical technology, Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion

(CFBC), Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) but in context to improvement in

the old and efficient thermal and hydro power plants, the best suited alternative

is to increase the overall efficiency by pursuing renovation & modernization (R&M) that will

not only help introducing latest technology but will also uprate the overall generation

capacity of the plant depending upon the plant operating conditions and requirements

This technical efficiency is measured on a number of parameters , which are :

1. Turbine efficiency.

2. Boiler efficiency.

3. Auxiliary Power Consumption.

4. Operating Heat Rate(Station Heat Rate).

5. Plant Load Factor.

6. Secondary Fuel Oil Consumption.

7. Plant Outages(Forced and Scheduled).

8. Plant Availability.

9. Plant Overhauling time.

Time and again MoP has introduced various awards and recognitions for plants which have

been maintaining either CERC norms or even better performance. There are various

parameters on the basis of which plants are awarded which are :


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PARAMETER CRITERIA FOR ASSIGNING MARKS

Peaking PLF National avg. PLF = 0

>=90%PLF=50

STATION HEAT RATE Deviation of 20% and above from design heat rate = 0

Minimum deviation from design heat rate = 0

AUXILIARY ENERGY

CONSUMPTION

Compliance with normative value = 0

Maximum improvement from normative value achieved by any station during

the year = 20

SPECIFIC SECONDARY

FUEL OIL

CONSUMPTION

Compliance with normative value = 0

Maximum improvement from normative value achieved by any station during

the year = 15

TABLE 4 : CRITERIA FOR ASSIGNING AWARDS TO THERMAL POWERPLANTS

7

.

TABLE 5 : WEIGHTAGE OF EACH PARAMETER

There are three awards in each category and in total there are twelve awards that are given

each year.

Other than these three , there are various other criteria on the basis of which power plants are

awarded every then and now , like safety management practises , environment sensitive

practises , quality management practises .The purpose of all these awards is to motivate the

plants to work towards greater performance targets and hence help in efficient energy

generation.

1.7. ORGANISATIONAL PROFILE

Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) was started jointly by the Government of India

and the representatives of industry as an autonomous institute in the year 1956 to impart training

in the field of management development.

7 Comprehensive award scheme for power sector , Ministry of Power , Gov of India

Central Electricity Authority Report.

PARAMETER WEIGHTAGE

PEAKING PLF 50

SHR 15

SFC 15

AEC 20

TOTAL 100


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It is located at the palace of the erstwhile Prince of Berar known as Bella Vista at Hyderabad.

Initially Government Of India envisaged to set up the college in Britain. The first session was to

commence in 1948 at Henley. However a committee of the All India Council for Technical

Education in 1953 recommended that the Administrative Staff College be established in India.

ASCI specialize in training of civil servants and managers of corporate and government sectors

and urban management. The research and consultancy activities of ASCI were started in 1973

with aid from Ford Foundation.

Ever since it was established in 1956, ASCI fuelled the process of professionalizing management,

by synergizing a symbiotic blend of management development [training], consultancy and

research. This unique blend coupled with information technology pursuit is structured to develop

strategic thinking, reformist leadership, and state-of-the-art skills among practicing managers in

India and the developing world. It thus envisages to achieve competitive dominance by

confronting existing and emerging challenges and effectively managing regulatory, government,

commercial and non-commercial organizations.

Over 75,000 participants from industry, government and non-government organizations in India

and the developing world have taken advantage of nearly 200 management development

programs offered by ASCI every year and over 300 organizations have reaped benefits from its

research and consultancy services.

ASCI provides consultancy to industry, business and government in general management as well

as functional and sectoral areas of the management. The objectives of ASCI Consultancy is to

provide professional services for improving management practices in the organizations leading to

improved economic performance and long-term effectiveness.

The ASCI Consultancy Team generally comprises of faculty members representing different

functional and sectoral areas of management and uses a multi-disciplinary approach to problem

solving. Almost all the faculty members in the College are involved in consulting assignments so

that they will get enough opportunities to experiment with new ideas and approaches in achieving

economic performance and long-term effectiveness in problem-solving for the clients. This

approach also provides an opportunity for the faculty to enrich their teaching inputs.

ASCI have undertaken several consultancy assignments for national and international clients. The

principle objective of this service is to provide a multi-disciplinary approach in finding solutions

to serious problems that plague industry, business, and government. Some of the areas in which

consulting assistance has been provided by ASCI include strategic planning, organizational

restructuring, human resources management and development, restructuring, health management,

organization management, forest management, energy management, business process re-


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engineering and improving of service delivery of various Government institutions. At any point

of time while the number of projects under implementation is around 50, over 1000 assignments

have been carried out since 1965 till date.

The project clientele of ASCI is a virtual “whos who” list, comprising such prestigious agencies

and sponsors as the State and Central Governments, their various ministries/departments,

constituent establishments, public enterprises, statutory organizations as well as autonomous

bodies. ASCI is trusted with work by the International agencies too, like the constituent

organizations of the United Nations, the World Bank Institute, Department for International

Development (DfID, UK), the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), etc.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

As per Electricity Act 2003 Section 7 “Any generating company may establish, operate and

maintain a generating station without obtaining a license.” As a result of this we have power

plants in Central, State as well as private ownerships commonly called independent power

producers and therefore different operation and maintenance practises at differently owned

power plants , but not much literature is available on it because power plant performance is

always looked upon from technical perspective only and is measured on the basis of technical

parameters only .In fact , if we say that managerial practises affect the power plant

performance , it will be something new because we don‟t have the supporting data for the

same. So First of all journals and reports were studied to understand Managerial Efficiency

and the factors affecting the managerial efficiency in context of power plants and at the same

time technical efficiency parameters for thermal power plants were studied .To get an

understanding of the operational parameters of power plants CERC‟s “Norms of operation

for the tariff period 2009-14” was thoroughly studied and analysed.Equally gainful insights

were provided from these reports and journals:

“Manual on best practises in Indian Thermal Power Generating Units” by CII.

“Strengthening Operations and Maintenance Practises in State-Sector Coal-Fired

Power Generation Plants in India.” By The World Bank.

Research Paper titled “Assessment of Managerial Efficiency”; by Janis Vanags and

Ineta Giepele : Riga Technical University.

Working paper on “Operations and Maintenance practises and their impact on PowerPlant performance” , AOM submission number 11129.


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Other than these many other journals and reports were studied which can be found in

bibliography.

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Figure 5 : FIVE STEP APPROACH ADOPTED FOR THE PREPARATION OF THE REPORT

1.1. DATA COLLECTION

Efforts were done to take at least one plant from every unit size ranging from 20 MW to 600

MW and in total 18 units were taken up for study ranging from state , central to privately

owned thermal power plants , which were as follows :

NAME OF

THERMAL POWER

PLANT

UNIT NUMBER

TAKEN UNDER

STUDY

CAPACITY

(MW)

DATE OF

COMMISSIONING

CENTRAL/STATE/PRIVAT

E

PARLI TPS 2 20 1971 STATEKORBA EAST TPS 1 50 1966 STATE


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HARDUAGANJ TPS 3 55 1972 STATE

PARAS TPS 1 62.5 1967 STATE

PANIPAT TPS 1 110 1979 STATE

NASIK TPS 1 125 1971 STATE

KORADI TPS 1 105 1974 STATE

UNCHAHAR 4 210 1988 CENTRAL

KORBA WEST TPS 3 210 1983 STATE

IB TPS 2 210 1994 STATE

NASIK TPS 4 210 1979 STATE

PANIPAT TPS 5 250 1989 STATE

YAMUNANAGAR

TPS

1 300 2008 STATE

RIHAND TPS 2 500 1989 CENTRAL

SIMHADRI TPS 1 500 2002 CENTRAL

TATA TROMBAY

TPS

2 500 1984 PRIVATE

RAJIV GANDHI

TPS

1 600 2010 PRIVATE

CHANDRAPUR

TPS

2 500 1991 STATE

Table 6 LIST OF UNITS TAKEN UNDER STUDY

3.1.1. IDENTIFICATION AND FILTERATION OF MANAGERIAL

AND OPERATIONAL DATA SETS

On the basis of review of literature for Operational parameters , in which total of nine factors

were identified , three were taken as the indicators of overall plant efficiency. These were :

1. Plant Load Factor

2. Operating Heat Rate/ Station Heat Rate

3. Auxiliary Energy Consumption.

Similarly out of twelve Managerial practises identified for a Thermal Power Plant , five of

them were taken as indicators of efficient plant management practises . These were :

1. Quality Management Practises.

2. Safety Management Practises.

3. Environment Sensitive Practises.

4. HR Practises.

5. Surveillance and Control Practises.

3.1.2. SIGNIFICANCE OF PARAMETERS USED


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1. PLANT LOAD FACTOR : Plant Load Factor is a measure of average capacity

utilization. It is the ratio of actual output of a power plant over a period and its output

if it had operated to full capacity over that period of time. PLF for the thermal plant lies in the range of 65-90 percent and it can be noticed from

the past data that the average PLF for TPP‟s is increasing over the period .Deeper

insights reveal that the PLF for state sector thermal power plants is lower than the

central and private sector power plants by more than 10 percent. PLF of a plant is

affected by the following factors , namely :

Plant conditions.

Operations and Maintenance practises followed at the plant.

Operating availability of plants.

Vintage of Plant equipments.

2. STATION HEAT RATE : Gross Station Heat Rate (SHR) refers to the heat energy

input (in Kcal) required to generate one Kwh of electrical energy at generator

terminals. It is a measure of power plant efficiency and depends upon the plant

design, operating conditions and the level of electric power output. A lower heat rate

corresponds to better plant efficiency.The heat rate of a plant is affected by the

following factors:

Ageing of the plant

Operating load of the plant

Quality of fuel as compared to design quality

Operating parameters like Main Steam Pressure, Main Steam Temp.,

Reheat Steam Pressure, Reheat Steam Temp. etc.

Condenser vacuum as compared to design vacuum

Feed water inlet temperature as compared to original heat balance

Flue gas outlet temperature as compared to design values

Improper combustion in boiler causing more velocity of flue gas, increased

metal temperatures of reheater tubes which calls for increased reheater spray,

increased unburnt coal in ash, erosion of tubes resulting into more number of

tube leakages etc.


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Leakages in boiler area due to improper sealing etc.

Increase in DM water make-up.

Frequent starts / stops.

3. AUXILIARY ENERGY CONSUMPTION :

The auxiliary power consumption of any unit is based on the following operating

conditions of the plant like :

No. of drives in actual operation as compared to designed drives.

Unique drives typical to a particular power plant as compared to other similar

units.

Ageing of the units.

4. QM PRACTISES : Quality management practises lead to better equipment handling

, timely maintenance and servicing of plant auxiliaries and following a standard for

plant operation and maintenance practises which ultimately should lead to better plant

performance. But while applying these practises at a plant , the role of management is

huge and hence this parameter has been taken as an indicator of plant management

efficiency.

5. SM PRACTISES : Safety management practises lead to lesser accidents and is an

indicator of employee care practise as well. Technical staff as well as non-technical

staff will be more confident in day to day plant activities and operations if they are

sure of their safety .This will ultimately lead to a better run plant with total co-

operation of its manpower.

6. ES PRACTISES : Environment sensitive practises include having a green house gasemission system , regular overhauling and oiling of plant equipments so that they

produce noise to a limited extent , emit lesser environment pollutant

effluents.Implementing theses also need managerial effectiveness and so these has

been included in parameters.

7. SURVEILLANCE AND CONTROL PRACTISES : Having CCTV cameras

installed throughout the plant premises , PLC and SCADA automated plant control

,an updated website and record keeping , all these factors contribute to the overall


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plant performance and the onus is on the Manager to implement them , so these has

also been included.

8. HR PRACTISES : Having a full fledged HR management team rather than a

personnel management department in the plant premises goes a long way in catering

to the employee needs and job requirements. It also gives them a sense of belonging

to them. Regular training and development activities , employee promotion all these

play a role in employee motivation and hence heir inclination towards helping the

plant perform to its maximum capability.

3.1.3 DATA SOURCING

To carry out the research, data was collected from secondary data sources like Ministry of

Power , Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, Power plant developers, Central Electricity

Authority are few to name and rest of the input sourced from various reports and publications.

4. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION


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Three step data analysis procedure was followed :

Figure 6 : DATA ANALYSIS STEPS

4.1. QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS

1. On dividing these entire set of plants into three categories namely

20-125 MW

150-300 MW

300-600 MW

And then averaging out the PLF , AEC and SHR following trend was observed :

I. PLF has actually an increasing trend with plant size.

II. While the AEC and SHR both were coming down as the plant size

increased.

2. Plants were definitely better in performance with their increasing size , with Central

and private power plants best performing in each category.

QUALITATIVE ANALYSISBY PLOTTING GRAPHSAND SCATTER PLOTS.

FORMINGMEASUREMENT SCALEAND APPLYING RANK

ANALYSIS

REGRESSION ANALYSISOF OPERATIONALPARAMETERS ON

MANAGERIALPARAMETERS ANDVINTAGE OF PLANT.


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3. At the same time most of the units below 210 MW plants have not been able to

achieve , even the specified CERC norms.

4. The fact that same utilities plants are in best performing category definitely points out

that they follow certain practises that others don‟t and now we will move towards

what these practises are and if these practises are having any effect on their

performance using quantitative tools.

5. We had plants whose age had crossed 30 years like Parli Thermal Power station and

Paras Thermal power station , which have been shut down now , but at the time they

were functional they were performing good when compared to their peer group , when

we tried to find out the reasons , we came across this in one of the reports :

“Dedicated work force of the power station has resulted into a sustained performance of

this power station which is considered to be one of the vintage power stations of

Maharashtra”8

This again pointed towards the fact that the Plant maintenance activities definitely have

significant impact on plant „s operational performance and so we moved towards the

statistical tools to verify the same .

8 Report by MECON ltd titled “Report on achievable Heat Rate and Auxiliary Power Consumption of Thermal

Power Stations” page no 68 .


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Figure 7 : PLF TREND OF TOP PERFORMING UNIT FROM EACH SIZE.

4.2. QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS USING REGRESSION TOOLS

First step in quantitative analysis was scale formation for each of the operational and

managerial parameters selected. Scale used can be found in Annexure : 5 . Each parameter

was measured on a four point scale . While the operational parameters were split on the

numeric scale , we used point method to form scale for managerial parameters , as explained

below :

1. HR Practises : Four parameters were identified and defined for the same which were

as follows :

Whether the plant was following any HR practise.

ERP SAP was implemented or not.

Training and development activities.

There were many other parameters that could have been taken for scale formation , but for

that lot of time was required , and the project was to be completed in two months span only ,

so we have to suffice with these three.

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12

KORADI TPS ( 105 MW UNIT) KORBA E TPS ( 210 MW MW UNIT)

NTPC SIMHADRI (500 MW U2)


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For the HR practises prevalent in a plant it was assumed that if a plant has an employee

award system , medical and housing facilities , promotion schemes , any of these pointed

towards an active HR system present in a plant.

Similarly training and development activities were thought to be prerogative of a competent

HR system and so this was also taken as one of the parameters. In a firm it is the HR who

identifies training needs of the organisation and makes arrangement for the same.

Based on the presence of these three, plant was given one point for each and for those having

none of these , zero point was allotted.

2. QM , SM , ES Practises : For these three , following criteria was taken :

If plant is ISO certified for Quality , Safety as well as environment.

If the plant has received any award for the same.

If the plant is having any extra certification.

Point allotment system was same as followed in previous two.

Only an active and efficient management will be willing to take pains to get its plant

registered for awards. Since most of the award schemes require the plants to themselves

apply for the same and in this research it was assumed that if a plant gets any award for anyof the specified practises it tells two things, one that it is really performing well and the other

was that its management is willing to get its plants recognitions which also tells its dedication

towards its plant. And so this was taken as one of the indicators in all three categories i.e.

QM , SM ,ES .

Similarly for the extra certification.

3. SURVEILLANCE AND CONTROL PRACTISES : Following three parameters

were taken as possible indicators for Surveillance and Control :

PLC SCADA AUTOMATED Control system.

CCTV Surveillance system.

Plant specific website.

PLC SCADA control though turned out to be more of a technical factor but still it was kept

on the managerial control side because it was assumed that its implementation is actually

result of the management‟s awar eness and inclination towards it.


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CCTV surveillance at plant is solely management‟s discretion and is not related to technical

aspects even minutely. So this was taken as one of the indicators of control practises.

Plant specific website was taken as one of the indicators because having a plant website and

data updated on it , creates a knowledge bank for the study and research purposes and this

also is on the management‟s discretion.

RANKS: Based on the sum of qualitative and quantitative parameters(can be found in

Annexure :6 ) obtained from applying the measurement scale ranks were defined for each of

the units.For units obtaining same ranks , the one with more vintage was given a higher rank.

This time , analysis revealed following facts :

THERMAL POWER STATION RANK

TROMBAY TPS , U-2, 500 MW , 1984 1

SIMHADRI TPS , U-1 , 500 MW -2002 2

RIHAND TPS , U-1 , 500 MW -1989 3

UNCHAHR TPS U2 , 210 MW - 1988 4

PANIPAT TPS , U-5 , 250 MW 5

IB TPS , U-2 , 210 MW - 1994 6

YAMUNANAGAR TPS U-1 , 300 MW - 2008 7

NASIK TPS , U -4 , 210 MW 8

CHANDRAPUR , U-2 , 500 MW -1991 9

KORADI TPS , U-1 , 105 MW , 1974 10

NASIK TPS , U-1, 125 MW - 1971 12

PARLI TPS U-1 , 20 MW -1971 13

KORBA WEST TPS , U-2, 210 MW , 1983 14

KORBA EAST TPS , U-1 , 50 MW - 1966 15

HARDUAGANJ TPS , U-3 , 55 MW-1972 16

PARAS TPS , 62.5 MW - 1967 17

PANIPAT TPS , U-1,110 MW - 1979 18

Table 7 : RANKING OF PLANTS AFTER QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE

PARAMETERS WERE TAKEN TOGETHER.

Again same pattern was observed, private plant came out to be best performing plant

followed by central and state generating units.

Qualitative and quantitative analysis were actually giving the same results , but we

still needed some tool which can further verify our findings and can provide a

relationship between managerial and operational parameters and that is where the

project moved towards the regression analysis.


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REGRESSION ANALYSIS :

1. PLF , AEC AND SHR were averaged out for each of the units.

2. For the units not having any of the three operative variable data , proxy data was used.

e.g. For PLF , PAF was used as a proxy variable , for SHR Specific secondary fuel

oil consumption was used as a variable and for AEC , missing data were replaced with

the average AEC for the unit.

3. For the first part of the regression analysis , operative variables were taken as the

Y(dependent) variable and were regressed on the managerial parameters which were

assumed as X (constant) attributes.

4. Each of the operational variables were first regressed on individual managerial

parameters but it gave no significant result.

5. After that each of the operational parameter was regressed on all the managerial

parameters taken together( result can be found in Annexure : 8,9 and 10) and

following results were observed :

The regression output for PLF due to Managerial factors attributed 11% of the

variability in PLF due to managerial parameters but this was negated because

the alpha value was too high.

The regression output for SHR due to Managerial factors attributed 55.6 % of

the variability in SHR due to Managerial practices and alpha value for this

result was 0.0009 which is less than 0.05, so we can rely on this output and

can say that SHR is affected a great deal by Managerial Practises. But the

question is Why I said great deal and the answer goes like this, because there

are lot of other factors which affect the SHR and since this model have not been able to take all of them into consideration , we can interpret from the

result that SHR is affected a great deal by Managerial Practises but then , there

might be other factors as well and they might have a diminishing as well as an

enhancing effect on the PLF.

The regression output for AEC due to Managerial Practices attributed 37.2%

of the variability in AEC due to Managerial Practises and alpha value for this

result was 0.02 which again was less than 0.05 i.e. we can rely on this output.

But again there care also lot of other factors which may be the reason behind


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variability of AEC . We have not been able to take all of them and so we can

say that Managerial Practises have significant effect on the AEC but since our

model is limited , the same can get diminished or enhanced if we assume other

factors as well ; but still the effect will be significant.

6. Afterwards each of the operational parameters were again taken as variables (Y) and

regressed on vintage of the plants i.e. plant age(X).Following were the observations :

Regression output predicts the variability in PLF due to vintage of the plant to

about 7.9% but again this is negated because of high p value.

About 57% of the variability in SHR can be attributed to vintage , p value for

the same is 0.003 which again is less than 0.05 and hence we can rely on this

result.But like we said in case of managerial practices , there are other

variables as well which can have effect on this result. Since we have not been

able to take all the variables into this model , so the result has limitations and

we can say that vintage of the plant has a significant effect on the SHR of the

plant but quantifying it needs more indepth analysis.

Variability in AEC due to vintage of the plant amounts to about 21% as per

the results but again due to high p value this is negated.

5. CONCLUSIONS

1. Managerial practices have a significant effect on Auxiliary Power Consumption as

well as on Station Heat Rate but in case of PLF , there is a relationship between the

two which can be found out by further analysis.

2. Vintage of the plant does lead to higher Station Heat Rate but in case of AEC and

PLF there is a relationship which leaves scope for further analysis. .

3. Lesser capacity units are on the lower side of the performance benchmarks so are the

state GENCOs as compared to Central and Private generating units.

4. Of the technical reasons, low quality of coal has come out to be the major reason

behind non-performance of the utilities.


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6. RECOMMENDATIONS

1. A power plant has always been looked on from a technical perspective , but the

results of the analysis confirm that managerial practises does lead to a more

technically efficient plant. So the report suggest that certain maintenance practises

be made compulsory in power plants just like we have technical norms , we should

have management/maintenance norms as well which should be reviewed on an

annual basis.

2.

Most difficult part of this report was getting the data for individual units. While wehave data for whole of the power station in CEA‟s annual reviews, there is hardly

any platform from where we can get the data for individual units. This despite the

fact that performance of a non-performing unit can be easily hidden with high

performing units of a power station when the result is collective rather than

segregated .This will not only help the plants to discipline its non-performing units

but will also help in research purposes. So I recommend a system where individual

unit data should also be taken from the power generating utilities.

3. For future purposes instead of setting up a below 200 MW Thermal power

generating unit , same can be done with other better efficient technologies like

IGCC , CFBT etc.

4. There are many other variables when it comes to Management practises in a power

plant like Manpower strength , number of permanent and contractual employees ,

employee job satisfaction , leaders

Sip 106 Laxmiswarupa

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