India stand at fourth place in wind power

Hello friends

this post was originally posted at http://electro-scope.blogspot.com/ by Mr N R Meel and with his due permission is being posted here.

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into more useful forms, usually electricity, using wind turbines. At the end of 2006, worldwide capacity of wind-powered generators was 74,223megawatts; although it currently produces just over 1% of world-wide electricity use. it accounts for approximately 20% of electricity use in Denmark, 9% in Spain, and 7% in Germany.Globally, wind power generation more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2006.

Most modern wind power is generated in the form of electricity by converting the rotation of turbine blades into electrical current by means of an electrical generator. In windmills (a much older technology), wind energy is used to turn mechanical machinery to do physical work, such as crushing grain or pumping water.

Wind energy is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, and reduces toxic atmospheric and green house emmission if used to replace fossil-fuel-derived electricity. The intermittency of wind seldom creates problems when using wind power at low to moderate penetration levels.
India ranks 4th in the world with a total wind power capacity of 6,270 MW in 2006. Wind power generates 3% of all electricity produced in India. The World Wind Energy Conference in New Delhi in November 2006 has given additional impetus to the Indian wind industry. The windfarm near Muppandal, India, provides an impoverished village with energy for work.India-based Suzlon Energy is one of the world's largest wind turbine manufacturers.

Current electricity generation in india

This post was originally posted by NR Meel at our associate blog www.electroscope.blogspot.com and has been crossposted with due permission of author.

Electric power generation in india is done mostly by government sector entities, and are controlled by various central public sector corporations, like National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, National Thermal Power Corporation ,nuclear power corporation of india and various state level corporations.. The transmission and distribution is by the grid corporation ,State Electricity Boards (SEBs) or private companies.

Current per capita power consumption comes to around 600 units (KWH) per year.

Installed capacity

Grand Total Installed Capacity is 132,110.21 MW.( 2006)Thermal power plants·

• Coal based thermal power is 70,682 MW which contributes 53.3 % of total insatalled base· Gas Based
• Thermal Power is 13,691 MW which contributes around 11% of thermal based power·
• Oil Based Thermal Power contributes around 1% of total thermal power

Current installed base of Thermal Power is 85,575.84 MW which comes to 64.7% of total installed capacity from all sourses.

Hydro power plants

India was one of the poineering states in establishing hydro power plants . Current installed base of Hydro Power is 34,654 MW which comes to 26.2% of total installed capacity. Today Hydro sector has turbines as large as 250 MW and single stage projects as big as 1500 MW Nathpa Jhakri .

Nuclear Power Plants

Currently 17 Nuclear Power reactors produce 4,120 MW which comes to 3.1% of total installed base.

Renewable power

Current installed base of Renewable Power is 6,761 MW which comes to 5.9% of total installed base.

Capacity addition by 2007

As per data (as of May 2006) shared by Power Ministry, addition power of 19,680 MW will be added in remaining period of 10'th Five Year Plan (2002-2007).

OEE-Overall Equipment Effectiveness

The concept of OEE is quite popular among Manufacturing Industries. It gives a good measure to the concerned authorities that how the Equipment is performing as a whole. It could be of individual stand alone machine or of full line. Though I have known the concept since last 5 years and also have used it many times during my job, but it was also tough to explain it to somebody.

Recently, one of my Professors, Prof Soumish Dev was teaching the concept again as part of Operations Subject. The way he explained it, was simply awesome. I am sharing the same explaination with you.

As can be seen in the picture above. Lets understand the concept from analogy point of view rather than taking it directly to machines and plants.

• Lets assume that there is a student of Engineering, who has 365 days in the year.
• Out of 365 days lets assume that 100 days are for holidays, as no student should study for 365 days. Then 265 days are left. This is known as Loading Time, while 100 days are known as Not Scheduled Time.
• Now, out of planned 265 days of working, student fells ill for aroun 15 days. Now, this gives us actually 250 days, where the student actually worked, and is known as Running Time. While the 15 days are known as Idle Time.
• Now, lets assume that the student claims that at his efficient or effective state of mind an health he can complete 80 pages of a book per day. So, this can be considered as Theoretical Output that is expected during the Running time. So, in this case it would be 250x80=20000 pages in the year. But, actually we found that he has read only 15000 pages. The reasons could be several that reduced his efficiency and effectivenes. So, 15000 pages, is known as Actual Output.
• Now, at the end of the year, teacher took a test of the student. The test was out of 15000 pages he studied during the year. As, the student has read it effectively and efficiently he should have got 100 marks out of 100. But, he got only 70 marks. Now, whats the reason. It means that out of 15000 pages he read only 70% properly. Other 30% was bad quality reading. So, he read only 10500 pages properly and the 4500 pages not properly. So, 10500 can be said as Good Output.

So, now we will calculate the OEE of student during the considered year. It will be comprised of following elements

• Availability i.e. Running Time/Loading Time or we can say actually followed time table w.r.t. planned time table.
• Speed Efficiency i.e. Actual Output/Theoretical output.
• Quality Efficiency i.e. Good Output/Actual Output.

Or if you notice carefully, in the above diagram we have just calculated Good Output/Loading Time.

An Overview of Nuclear Energy

Hello friends

This article was originally posted by Mr NR Meel at the associate blog http://electro-scope.blogspot.com/. With his due permission we are reposting it here.

An overview of nuclear energy

The main use of nuclear energy is to generate electricity. This is simply a clean and efficient way of boiling water to make steam that drives turbine generators. Except for the reactor itself, a nuclear power station works like most coal or gas-fired power stations. Nuclear energy is best applied to medium and large-scale electricity generation on a continuous basis .The fuel for it is basically uranium.

It is clean, safe, and usually cost-competitive, that is why nuclear energy is used to make the steam.

Nuclear energy has distinct environmental advantages over fossil fuels, almost all its wastes are controlled and managed, that is why, nuclear power stations do not cause any pollution. The fuel for nuclear power is unlimited, considering both geological and technological aspects. That is to say, there be plenty of uranium in the earth's crust and furthermore, well-proven (but not yet fully economic) technology means that we can extract about 60 times as much energy from it as we do today. The safety record of nuclear energy is better than for any major industrial technology.

Initially it was seen as more convenient and probably cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives such as coal, gas and oil. That was when the technology was first developed for harnessing the power of the atom in a safe and controlled manner, in the 1950s. Since then the question of sustainability has emerged, giving rise to a more sophisticated foundation.

The contribution Nuclear energy around 16% of the world's electricity. It is more than the world used from all sources in 1960. Today 31 countries use nuclear energy to generate up to three quarters of their electricity, and a substantial number of these depend on it for one quarter to one half of their supply.The questions of safety, economics, waste management, transport of nuclear materials, radiation, and avoiding weapons proliferation are all addressed in some detail.

Safety

From the beginning, safety of nuclear reactors has been a very high priority in their design and engineering. About one third of the cost of a typical reactor is due to safety systems and structures. The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was a reminder of the importance of this, whereas the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 showed that conventional safety systems work.

At Chernobyl in Ukraine 30 people were killed (mostly by high levels of radiation) and many more injured or adversely affected. This reactor lacked the basic engineering provisions necessary for licensing in most parts of the world (other reactors of that kind still operating have been significantly modified). At Three Mile Island in the USA with a similarly serious malfunction, the effects were contained and no one suffered any harm or injury.

Economics

Nuclear power reactors are expensive to build but relatively cheap to operate. Their economic competitiveness thus depends on keeping construction to schedule so that capital costs do not blow out, and then operating them at reasonably high capacity over many years. By way of contrast, gas-fired power plants are very cheap and quick to build, but relatively very expensive to operate due to the cost of their fuel. With rising gas prices, and the high cost of moving coal long distances, nuclear plants are generally competitive with both gas and coal in most parts of the world, and becoming more so.

Wastes

Nuclear power produces wastes, which are restricted and managed, with the cost of this being met by the electricity customer at the time. It does not produce any significant wastes, which are dispersed to the environment. It therefore avoids contributing to increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

Transport of nuclear materials

Safety is the prime requirement with nuclear transports, particularly those of highly radioactive spent fuel, and the record is remarkable. Shielding, and the security of that shielding in any accident, is the key with any nuclear materials, especially those, which are significantly radioactive. There has never been any radiation release from an accident involving such materials. For instance, spent fuel is shipped in large and extremely robust steel casks weighing over 100 tonnes, and each holding only about 6 tonnes of fuel.

Radiation

Ionizing radiation, such as occurs from uranium ores and nuclear wastes, is part of our human environment, and always has been so. At high levels it is hazardous, but at low levels it is harmless. Considerable effort is devoted to ensuring that those working with nuclear power are not exposed to harmful levels of radiation from it, and standards for the general public are set about 20 times lower still, well below the levels normally experienced by any of us from natural

Avoiding weapons proliferation

The initial development of atomic energy during and immediately after the Second World War was to produce bombs. An early concern when the atom was harnessed for controlled civil use was that this nuclear power should not enable more countries to acquire nuclear weapons. Through the United Nations, procedures were set up to ensure this, and in fact they have been perhaps the most eye-catching success of that body. No nuclear materials such as uranium from the civil nuclear fuel cycle have ever been diverted to make weapons. In fact today the whole picture is reversed in that a lot of military uranium is being brought into the civil nuclear fuel cycle to make electricity, which is widely seen as a positive development, unimaginable 40 years ago.