Shri Piyush Goyal to co-chair 3rd India- Australia energy security dialogue to be held in Australia
Shri Piyush Goyal to co-chair 3rd India- Australia energy
security dialogue to be held in Australia
Several roundtables planned on key areas for enhancing
technical cooperation between both countries and b2b collaboration in different
sectors
Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New &
Renewable Energy will co-chair 3rd India – Australia Energy Security Dialogue
to be held from 8th to 11th February 2016 at Australia.
Besides official dialogue, several Roundtables will be organized during the
Energy Security Dialogue with a view to get to know the state of art
technologies in the relevant areas. The discussion will also enhance business
to business collaboration in different sectors. These roundtables include
(a) Efficient Coal Mining, Clean
Coal Technologies, Coal Gasification (including underground) Mine Safety, Mine
Closure etc. at Brisbane.
(b) Business opportunities for LNG
production and trade, Coal Bed Methane at Brisbane.
(c) Management training and Skills
Development in Coal Sector at Brisbane.
(d) Renewable Energy and Challenges
for Grid Integration at Sydney.
(e) Efficient Coal Based Power
Generation and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) at Sydney.
(f) Smart Grids, Smart Meters and
Energy Efficiency at Sydney.
(g) Investors Roundtables (Business
Community, Investors, Industry Analysts,etc.) at Sydney.
The coal sector of India envisages doubling its production in next five
years. This includes technology
development, adopting best mining practices, environment management,
development of skills, improvement of safety etc. Australia being the leading coal producer in
the world with very high safety records in coal mining is in a position to help
India in improving the mining practices and development of environment friendly
technologies.
It is envisaged that the
technical cooperation between India and Australia in the coal mining sector
would help India in improving the safety, production and productivity of coal
mines besides developing clean coal technologies. In this context, the following areas have
been proposed for deliberations in the ensuing meetings of energy security
dialogue between both the countries.
· Underground mining
technologies
· Mine closure and
reclamation of mined out areas
· Mines safety – capacity
building
· Exploration technologies
for coal exploration
· Dry coal beneficiation
technologies
· Development of coal bed
methane (CBM)/coal mine methane (CMM)
· Development of underground
coal gasification (UCG)
· Skill development
For improvement of safety
in coal mines, officials from coal companies are being trained at SIMTARS,
Australia under the programme of training for trainers. It is proposed to enhance the scale of this
training covering more number of people from the industry. It is proposed to set up a virtual reality
training centre at ISM, Dhanbad with the help of SIMTARS, Australia and Indian
coal mining companies namely CIL and NTPC.
In regard to skill development,
both the countries have agreed to set up a Centre of Excellence for Mining at
Indian School of Mines (ISM), Dhanbad.
This facility is envisaged to provide opportunities for partnership
between Australian institutions and ISM, Dhanbad in the areas of research and
development, mining technology, safety and disaster management, clean coal and
energy technology etc. and joint training programmes for technological,
managerial and operational skill development in coal sector.
Government of India has
recently put in place a policy for development of underground coal gasification
and MoC is likely to come up with some coal blocks for offer for development of
the resource. The Australian companies can
look forward for participation in this area. There is ample scope for the
Australian mining companies in participating in the tenders for development of
different coal blocks offered to various public sector companies in the recent
past. Coal India Limited is embarking on
development of CBM/CMM from their leasehold areas where Australian companies
can look forward for participation for developing CBM resource.
Australia has the 11th largest known
reserves of natural gas and is likely to be 4th largest exporter of LNG in the
near future. Petronet LNG Ltd. has a 20
year contract with Gorgon gas to source 1.44 MMT of gas annually. This will be
supplied to IOCL, BPCL and HPCL for further distribution. The supplies are
expected to begin by November this year and will go a long way in fostering
energy security for our country.
During the energy dialogue, India will share its perspective on upcoming
opportunities for trade of LNG between India-Australia. Policy collaboration on
issues pertaining to LNG trade will also be discussed. A Roundtable discussion on LNG trade, chaired
by Shri Piyush Goyal, will take place in Brisbane on 8th February. During the Roundtable Indian participants
will share their perspective on “growth of natural gas and outlook of energy
consumption in India” and the Australian side will share their perspective on “Upstream development
initiatives for facilitating business opportunities for LNG production and
trade”. A strong delegation is being
fielded by India and will include representatives of Petronet LNG Limited, GAIL
(India) Limited, Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Bharat Petroleum Corporation
Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited. It is expected to build
strong linkages in the field of Natural Gas strengthening existing G2G and B2B
linkages.
In context of coal based power generation, the discussion would focus on
how Australian Utilities have met the challenge of limiting the emission of
pollutants like SOx, NOx, Particulate Matter and Mercury. This is of
significance, particularly in view of the strict pollution control norms
recently notified by MOEF. Possibility of further improving the efficiency of
coal based generation will be explored, including from supercritical and ultra
supercritical technologies. Discussions will be held on Carbon Capture and
Storage, wherein the experience of Australian companies including that of
Global Carbon Capture & Storage Institute, Australia will be discussed.
Discussions will also be held to explore the possibility of joint R&D in
the field of CCS.
Australia has significant expertise in the large scale deployment of
rooftop solar. Australia has set up a photovoltaic School of Excellence at the
University of New South Wales. They also have started working on tapping wave
energy. However, the large scale deployment of renewable is posing challenges
for the stability and security of the grid. The Australian experience in solar
scheduling and forecasting will be valuable to India. The experience sharing in
rooftop solar specially in context of two way metering and tariffs will help us
in our rooftop programme. Possibility of joint research in the area of
wave energy will be explored.
India has announced a Smart Grid Mission. Australia has worked
significantly on Smart Grids in the Melbourne area. IEEMA has exported few
million Smart Meters to Australia. The experience sharing with Australian
utilities with the Smart meters will provide invaluable input to smart meter
roll out in India. Australia started a cool roof programme few years back. The
Australian experience will help us in the building energy efficiency.
BACKGROUND
The India – Australia Energy Security Dialogue was established following
the visit of then Australian Prime Minister Ms. Julia Gillard to India in
October, 2012. The Dialogue was institutionalized to discuss areas of mutual
interest in energy security and key issues in India and Australia's energy
markets, as well as regional and globe trends, and developments in both
countries. Two meetings of the Energy Security Dialogue were held in New Delhi
and Brisbane in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
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