SAMARTH 3P conference deliberates on biomass co-firing in thermal power plants

SAMARTH (National Mission on Use of Biomass in Thermal Power Plants) and NPTI jointly organised the National Conference on Biomass, themed “3P - Pellet to Power to Prosperity” in New Delhi. Krishan Pal Gurjar, Minister of State for Power & Heavy Industries, inaugurated the conference along with Alok Kumar, Secretary (Power), Dr MM Kutty, Chairman, CAQM, Ghanshyam Prasad, Chairman, CEA, Gurdeep Singh, CMD, NTPC, Ramesh Babu V, Director Operations, NTPC, Ujjwal Kanti Bhattacharya, Director, Projects, NTPC, Praveen Gupta, Member (Th.) CEA, Piyush Singh, Joint Secretary, MoP, Dr Tripta Thakur, DG-NPTI, Sudip Nag-Mission Director SAMARTH & Executive Director Biomass NTPC in the presence of Senior Government officials. Krishan Pal Gurjar, MoS (Power), inaugurated SAMARTH Website and released Mission Biomass Co-firing Booklet in presence of Alok Kumar, Secretary (MoP) and other dignitaries. Addressing the stakeholders present on the occasion, Krishan Pal Gurjar, Minister of State for Power & Heavy Industries, commented, “By mandating the use of agro residue pellets in thermal power plants, the MoP has come up with a way to limit air pollution and assist farmers in clearing the land for the sowing of new crops.”

“The Biomass Co-firing Policy is a critical step towards meeting India's renewable energy targets and lowering greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector. Taking into consideration the benefits of biomass co-firing, the government is putting in concerted efforts to boost the biomass pellet-manufacturing sector. He appreciated the efforts of SAMARTH mission in the direction of enabling biomass co-firing across India. So far, around 1 lakh MT of biomass has been co-fired in more than 42 Thermal Power Stations, and this volume is expected to increase further in the coming months. I urge all stakeholders to attend this important conference and make the most out of it.”, he further added.