KSHETRICHERRA: COUNTRY’S
BIGGEST BIOMASS GASIFIER PLANT
Subhasis
K. Chanda
Over
the last decade the non-conventional and renewable energy sources
have been occupying the central place in the area of energy generation
and supply due to fast depletion of fossil fuels. According to
reports, the conventional energy sources would likely to be exhausted
globally by 2050. With such a deadline looming over the head,
the technological experts are busy finding viable means of sustaining
the existing and discovering new sources of energy. In a relevant
move, the Government has taken up an ambitious plan on non-conventional
energy sources to light up about 40 thousand remote villages of
the country by the Tenth Plan period. Keeping this in view, the
country’s biggest Biomass Gasifier Power Plant has recently been
built at a remote hamlet Kshetricherra of Tripura.
Kshetricherra is
situated at Chhamanu block under Longtharai Valley subdivision
in Dhalai district. It is inhabited mostly by tribal populace
and hitherto been remained a dark area. On August 30, the switching
on of the 1 MW Biomass Gasifier based power plant aired the message
of transforming the lives of 20,000 tribal inhabitants of the
area. The plant will provide electricity for domestic use, drinking-water
supply, irrigation plants, hospital, wireless-communication station,
mechanical workshops and other commercial activities. The project
is also aimed to ensure peak-saving, power supply to 2000 direct
consumers, employment generation, environment protection, strengthening
co-operative movement, development of power and forest industries
besides setting up of base for rural information technology centre.
Biomass gasification
is basically conversion of solid-wood, wood-waste and agriculture-reduce
into a combustible gas mixture normally called producer gas. While
conversion to gas results in a loss of energy up to 25 per cent,
the use of gas thus obtained is highly beneficial. In biomass
gasifier plant, the gas is basically burnt inside a diesel-based
engine. Generally, in a 20 kw power generation project 1.8 to
2 litres of diesel and 16 to 20 kg wood are used every hour when
operated in dual-fuel mood. So the consumption of diesel and wood
for 1MW plant would be five times of that proportion.
The biomass required
for the plant will be supplied by the State Forest Department,
which has set up a forest plantation of Kesiya tree over 200 hectare
area nearby the plant. The Tripura Renewable Energy Development
Agency (TREDA) with an estimated cost of about Rs. 2.5 crore took
up this biggest biomass project of the country in 1999. The ninety
per cent of the cost has been borne by the Ministry of Renewable
Energy and rest of it by the State government. Though there have
been signs of electricity before this plant in the block area
but a large number of hamlets were without the power. Now the
people living at those hamlets may breathe a sigh of relief, for,
the power from this plant will be utilized to light 20 villages
under the block.
Set up over an area
of one acre the biomass gasifier power plant has four gasifier
machines of 250-kilo watt capacity each. Four generators and other
ancillary equipments are complementing these. Everyday 1 mega
watt power is generated at the plant. Not all but those villages,
which are most backward and yet to be brought under electricity
network, have been identified for implementation. Considering
the limited production, the service, at the moment, is being restricted
to the prime time requirement i.e. from 5 pm. to 11 pm. Each unit
of power will cost Rs. 2.75.
To oversee the management
of the power plant a co-operative society, Chhamanu Rural Energy
Co-operative Society Ltd., with the chairman of Block Advisory
Committee as its chairman, has been constituted. Besides, with
a view to ensure active participation of the local people two
local tribal youths have been engaged as mechanics for the project
by TREDA after giving them necessary training at an ITI in Gujarat.
Besides, a large number of local people have expressed their concern
and have come forward to help its timely completion.
The power project
is expected to contribute a great deal to the rural infrastructure
and rural development of the State as well as the country. Alongside
the plan to illuminate the dark hamlets of a remote area of the
country let the Kshetricherra biomass gasifier plant be an ideal
instance of upholding the concept of participatory planning and
implementation. (PIB Features)
*AIO,PIB,
Agartala
