Commodity Online
NEW DELHI:
The power generating capacity of India is poised to increase to more than 200,000 MW by 2012 and is projected to double to every ten years thereafter', according to V P Joy, IAS, Joint Secretary (Thermal), Ministry of Power at the inaugural session of the two day Power Plant Summit 2008 organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The aim of the summit is to provide a platform for developing and strengthening services network for Indian thermal power plants in collaboration with the U.S counterparts. Congratulating CII for its initiatives, Joy highlighted that U.S has been one of the key partners towards meeting energy requirements for the past two decades and hoped this Summit would further pave way for greater commerce and collaboration.
"Our objective is to address the challenges and meet the demand - supply factor and make power available to all in an environment friendly approach," he added. There is an urgent need for adoption of clean coal technologies, super-critical technologies, capacity augmentation & skill upgradation. This can be facilitated through policy interventions, financial incentives and regulatory framework.
Applauding India for its pace of development, Douglas C Hengel, Deputy Assistant Secretary, US Department of State, said "the recent U.S - India 123 agreement recognizes India's emergence on global stage. Both the democracies share common energy requirements and this calls for consideration of bilateral investment treaty on clean energy cooperation and collectively taking up strong energy security policies."
Hengel added, "U.S strongly support India's development and the new government looks forward to cooperation on strategic policies, and will continue development of clean energy development with India. We hope that India gain membership of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and extend a strong support to the Asia Pacific Partnership (APP) through its clean energy technology initiatives."
Earlier welcoming the delegates, V Raghuraman, Principal Advisor and Chief Coordinator, Energy Environment and Natural Resources, CII, stated, India has been over 15 years facing challenges to meet the energy needs and presently the demand for services in the power sector is on a rise and there is a need for technology upgradation, capacity enhancement, etc and hoped that the Indo-U.S collaboration will go a long way in meeting the desired needs of the sector.
In his concluding remarks, S. Raghupathy, Senior Director & Head, CII - Godrej - GBC said' "Treating the power plant sector as a key area for development, we aim to develop three world class power plants in India by 2012. This summit will bring together the suppliers to interact and seek avenues of trade in power plant sector, facilitation a strong supply network".
He further added, "India is the second largest Nation in the world, in terms of green building footprint which is pegged at over 250 million sq feet and with 350 green building projects registered in India. This is expected to increase to 1000 buildings by 2012."
The day was also marked by the inaugural of the exposition where the 14 U.S based technical service providers will showcase their services and technologies. The summit is supported by the US Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID)
