Lack of biomass pellets forces Bengal’s power plants to fail in co-firing mandate: Officials

Kolkata: West Bengal's thermal power plants are unable to comply with the Union power minister's five percent biomass co-firing mandate due to a lack of biomass pellets of agricultural residues, a senior official said on Tuesday. Biomass co-firing is the practice of substituting a part of the fuel with biomass at coal-based thermal plants. The state-owned West Bengal Power Development Company Ltd (WBPDCL) and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) have both failed in sourcing biomass pellets after no vendors participated in the tenders floated by them.

Logistics is the biggest challenge: Kumar

"There are technical and commercial challenges. The biggest concern is logistics," state Power Secretary S Suresh Kumar said at the DVC-organised stakeholders meeting on sustainable co-firing of biomass in thermal power plants.

Officials said that NTPC has successfully co-fired biomass pellets in 13 of their power plants in the country, while private utility CESC is able to carry out a small trial bio-mass firing in one of their plants.

DVC Chairman R N Singh said that the tender to source biomass pellets found no taker.

'There is no biomass pellet plant in the eastern region'

"The major issue is, there is no biomass pellet plant in the eastern region. Most of the pelletisation plants are in the north and the west. Logistics cost to import from there makes the project unviable," an official said.

WBPDCL officials also said that due to lack of availability, they are unable to execute the eco-friendly measures, though they had identified two power plants, one each in Sagardighi and Bakreshwar, to carry out trials.

The Union power ministry in October 2021, mandated a five percent blend of biomass pellets made, primarily, of agro residue, along with coal and the obligation was scheduled to rise to seven per cent after two years. It also earmarked the minimum period of contract for pellet procurement for seven years to avoid any delay and build up a long-term supply chain.

India has a surplus of 230 million tonnes of agricultural residue available, but its pellet manufacturing capacity is only 7,000 tonnes per day at present, officials said.

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