Economy & Market

Captive power plants to remain in business

Published

6 years ago

January 2, 2020

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– MS Unnikrishnan, Managing Director and CEO, Thermax Limited

Thermal sector has been facing challenges owing to many factors, the announcement of phasing out of thermal capacity addition added fuel to the fire. What is the effect on a company like Thermax who caters to captive power segment?
First and foremost, all sectors are not heading to negative. Phasing out of thermal will take significant time. India doesn’t have gas available; no oil available, the only fuel available in the country is coal. There is a lot of industry segment, which is dependent on captive power, e.g. cement plant. It would require firm power. If there is infirmity of power, it will lead to a shutdown affecting the production. Such disruption significantly affects the annual output of the company, which is a very dangerous thing to happen. So cement plants will continue to have captive power plants. Infact, cement is an industry, even though there is an economic slowdown, companies in this segment is investing in cement manufacturing units and captive power plants.

Secondly, cements plants have waste heat available. Depending on the capacity to invest, almost up to 50 per cent of the total power requirement can be met from the energy produced from this route. It varies from 30 to 50 per cent from plant to plant. If you go for 30 per cent energy from waste recovery, then your payback would be five years; whereas if you go for up to 50 per cent, then your payback would be seven to eight years. If the company has got a policy, the treasury can invest only in safe instruments; in that case, the payback of 10 years is absolutely good. As coal is used in making cement, there is a renewable purchase obligation (RPO). Waste to energy would help meet the RPO compliances.

In the case of sponge iron industry, there is a lot of waste gas. If you don’t convert it into electricity, it reflects on the viability of the plant. Similarly, there are companies from food processing and chemical industry where steam is required for the processes. Here one can look at a cogeneration plant, where both electricity and steam (heat) could be produced from the same plant; thus, the viability increases for the company.

So these niche segments are going to be continuing to have captive and cogeneration power plants. The investment climate in India is not good currently. It will capture back when the industrialisation catches back.

When do you see the current situation improving in terms of investment climate?
I am not a negativist in the current circumstances. It is a temporary affair; there is undoubtedly pressure on any investment right now. Consumption capture in the country is under negative sentiments. In my opinion, it will take another few quarters, and in some case, it may take six quarters, and some sectors may turnaround in two to three quarters time. A combination of money in hand and the sentiments improving will result in consumption going up. Once that happens, the FMCG improves, then durables and ultimately, the automobile also will pick up. This is because India got a population growth happening.

As these start reflecting, the power demand also will start climbing. The Indian urban population is steadily growing, and they use energy guzzlers like the air conditioners.

In recent years the quality of power from the grid has gone up. Do you think this is going to toughen the competition for companies like yours?
There is even now, an arbitrage of generating your own power apart from the security of power. One can generate electricity based on the current coal prices prevailing in India or on imported coal. The cost of the generated electricity will be between Rs 4.50 to 4.75, including the defraying of investments. Who will supply power at this to an industry consumer? I am also an industry consumer with 11 factories running. Nobody supplies electricity at that rate. For a factory that consumes 20/30/40 MW, captive generation is much economical than grid power. To remain competitive, if energy is a major cost factor in running the factory, then certainly one would look at economical options to bring down the production expenses.

Will captive have a robust market going forward?
Remember, the population of India and that of China are almost the same. China produces four times of electricity than India. Even if you have to develop up to China level, India needs to generate four times the current levels. Do you think India has the money to generate that much electricity? So, the industry has to fend for them for development to be happening.

Captive power industry/cogeneration industry in India will continue to remain in existence. But the relevance may come down 20 or 25 years down the lines. We are not there yet. In a fully developed infrastructure like that of the developed world, when India reaches that level, captive power will suffer.

Where does India stand in terms of grid power for industries?
When India would have a reliable grid like the one in the lines of the Euro Grid, where they give two feeders. Even if one feeder fails, the other feeder will automatically start operating. India has developed, in my reckoning, 15 to 20 per cent now. About 80 per cent development is still to happen. This would take at least three to four decades minimum.

– LIZA V

Economy & Market

TSR Will Define Which Cement Companies Win India’s Net-Zero Race

Published

3 days ago

April 27, 2026

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Jignesh Kundaria, Director and CEO, Fornnax Technology

India is simultaneously grappling with two crises: a mounting waste emergency and an urgent need to decarbonise its most carbon-intensive industries. The cement sector, the second-largest in the world and the backbone of the nation’s infrastructure ambitions, sits at the centre of both. It consumes enormous quantities of fossil fuel, and it has the technical capacity to consume something else entirely: the waste our cities cannot get rid of.

According to CPCB and NITI Aayog projections, India generates approximately 62.4 million tonnes of municipal solid waste annually, with that figure expected to reach 165 million tonnes by 2030. Much of this waste is energy-rich and non-recyclable. At the same time, cement kilns operate at material temperatures of approximately 1,450 degrees Celsius, with gas temperatures reaching 2,000 degrees. This high-temperature environment is ideal for co-processing, ensuring the complete thermal destruction of organic compounds without generating toxic residues. The physics are in our favour. The infrastructure is not.

Pre-processing is not the support act for co-processing. It is the main event. Get the particle size wrong, get the moisture wrong, get the calorific value wrong and your kiln thermal stability will suffer the consequences.

The Regulatory Push Is Real

The Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules 2026 mandate that cement plants progressively replace solid fossil fuels with Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF), starting at a 5 per cent baseline and scaling to 15 per cent within six years. NITI Aayog’s 2026 Roadmap for Cement Sector Decarbonisation targets 20 to 25 per cent Thermal Substitution Rate (TSR) by 2030. Beyond compliance, every tonne of coal replaced by RDF generates measurable carbon reductions which is monetisable under India’s emerging Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS). TSR is no longer a sustainability metric. It is a financial lever.

Yet our own field assessments across multiple Indian cement plants reveal a sobering reality: the primary barrier to scaling AFR adoption is not waste availability. It is the fragmented and under-engineered pre-processing ecosystem that sits between the waste and the kiln.

Why Indian Waste Is a Different Engineering Problem

Indian municipal solid waste is not the material that imported shredding equipment was designed for. Our waste streams frequently exceed 40 per cent to 50 per cent moisture content, particularly during monsoon cycles, saturated with abrasive inerts including sand, glass, and stone. Plants relying on imported OEM equipment face months of downtime awaiting proprietary spare parts. Machines built for segregated, low-moisture waste fail quickly and disrupt the entire pre-processing operation in Indian conditions.

The two most common failures we observe are what I call the biting teeth problem and the chewing teeth problem. Plants relying solely on a primary shredder reduce bulk waste to large fractions, but the output remains too coarse for stable kiln combustion. Others attempt to use a secondary shredder as a standalone unit without a primary stage to pre-size the feed, leading to catastrophic mechanical failure. When both stages are present but mismatched in throughput capacity, the system becomes a bottleneck. Achieving the 40 to 70 tonnes per hour required for meaningful coal displacement demands a precisely coordinated two-stage process.

Engineering a Made-in-India Answer

At Fornnax, our response to these challenges is grounded in one principle: Indian waste demands Indian engineering. Our systems are built around feedstock homogeneity, the holy grail of kiln stability. Consistent particle size and predictable calorific value are the foundation of stable kiln combustion. Without them, no TSR target is achievable at scale.

Our SR-MAX2500 Dual Shaft Primary Shredder (Hydraulic Drive) processes raw, baled, or loosely mixed MSW, C&I waste, bulky waste, and plastics, reducing them to approximately 150 mm fractions at throughputs of up to 40 tonnes per hour. The R-MAX 3300 Single Shaft Secondary Shredder (Hydraulic Drive), introduced in 2025, takes that primary output and produces RDF fractions in the 30 to 80 mm range at up to 30 tonnes per hour, specifically optimised for consistent kiln feeding. We have also introduced electric drive configurations under the SR-100 HD series, with capacities between 5 and 40 tonnes per hour, already operational at a leading Indian waste-processing facility.

Looking ahead, Fornnax is expanding its portfolio with the upcoming SR-MAX3600 Hydraulic Drive primary shredder at up to 70 tonnes per hour and the R-MAX2100 Hydraulic drive secondary shredder at up to 20 tonnes per hour, designed specifically for the large-scale throughput that higher TSR ambitions require.

The Investment Case Is Now

The 2070 Net-Zero target is not a distant goal for India’s cement sector. It starts today, with decisions being made on the plant floor.

The SWM Rules 2026 are already in effect, requiring cement plants to replace coal with RDF. Carbon credit markets are opening up, and coal prices are not going to get cheaper. Every tonne of coal a cement plant replaces with waste-derived fuel saves money on one side and generates carbon credit revenue on the other. Pre-processing infrastructure is no longer just a compliance requirement. It is a business investment with a measurable return.

The good news is that nothing is missing. The technology works. The waste is available in every Indian city. The government has provided the policy direction. The only thing standing between where the industry is today and where it needs to be is the commitment to build the right infrastructure.

The cement companies that move now will not just meet the regulations. They will be ahead of every competitor that waits.

About The Author

Jignesh Kundaria is the Director and CEO of Fornnax Technology. Over an experience spanning more than two decades in the recycling industry, he has established himself as one of India’s foremost voices on waste-to-fuel technology and alternative fuel infrastructure.

Concrete

WCA Welcomes SiloConnect as associate corporate member

Published

3 weeks ago

April 13, 2026

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The World Cement Association (WCA) has announced SiloConnect as its newest associate corporate member, expanding its network of technology providers supporting digitalisation in the cement industry. SiloConnect offers smart sensor technology that provides real-time visibility of cement inventory levels at customer silos, enabling producers to monitor stock remotely and plan deliveries more efficiently. The solution helps companies move from reactive to proactive logistics, improving delivery planning, operational efficiency and safety by reducing manual inspections. The technology is already used by major cement producers such as Holcim, Cemex and Heidelberg Materials and is deployed across more than 30 countries worldwide.

Concrete

TotalEnergies and Holcim Launch Floating Solar Plant in Belgium

Published

3 weeks ago

April 13, 2026

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TotalEnergies and Holcim have commissioned a floating solar power plant in Obourg, Belgium, built on a rehabilitated former chalk quarry that has been converted into a lake. The project has a generation capacity of 31 MW and produces around 30 GWh of renewable electricity annually, which will be used to power Holcim’s nearby industrial operations. The project is currently the largest floating solar installation in Europe dedicated entirely to industrial self-consumption. To ensure minimal impact on the surrounding landscape, more than 700 metres of horizontal directional drilling were used to connect the solar installation to the electrical substation. The project reflects ongoing collaboration between the two companies to support industrial decarbonisation through renewable energy solutions and innovative infrastructure development.