Sweet success for the sugar industry

The primary objective of the Advanced Bagasse Cogeneration (ABC) component of the $19 million Green House Gas Pollution Prevention (GEP) Project, cogeneration is to reduce CO2 emissions per kW-hour of electricity generated from bagasse, and to encourage the use of alternate biomass fuels (instead of fossil fuels) in high-efficiency cogeneration plants. The ABC component has provided Financial Assistance (FA) grants to demonstrate state-of-the-art cogeneration technologies, Technical Assistance (TA) grants to perform techno-economic feasibility studies, and Matching Grants to carry out research and development.

Among the nine sugar mills that received the Financial Assistance, five have successfully completed operation for a period exceeding 270 days using biomass fuels. During 1999-2000, Dhampur, Ugar, Shamanur, Thiru Arooran and Rana sugar mills together generated 3,463 lakh kWh, and exported 2,098 lakh kWh, to the grid. The total revenue potential of each project is in the range of Rs 5 to 7 lakhs per day only from power export to the grid. The use of bagasse and other biomass fuels in place of fossil fuels has also benefited the environment. The CO2 offset is 3.81 lakh tons due to gross power generation and 2.31 lakh tons due to net surplus generation. These ‘advanced’ mills have also laid emphasis on energy efficiency measures to educe their steam and electricity consumption.

To accomplish the objective of the ABC component, Winrock International India (WII) managed the information dissemination and professional development, performance monitoring, data collection and technical assistance through periodic seminars, workshops, conferences, on-site visits and other training programs. All these efforts were highly successful in creating awareness and capacity building among all the stakeholders. Fourteen issues of Cane Cogen India, a quarterly newsletter have successfully been published and have become the periodic reference journal for the cogeneration industry.