Financial Benefits

Benefits of DesiPower

Local benefit :

• Cheaper and cleaner than diesel generation.
• Cheaper than industrial and commercial tariffs in many states.
• More reliable and of better quality than grid supplies.
• Cleaner than fossil fuel fired plants.
• Smokeless cooking energy.
• Cheaper and cleaner process energy from waste heat.
• Nearly eliminates the consumption of diesel oil in generator sets and substantially reduces the cost of electricity generated by them.
• Local value addition of local resources accelerates the village development process
• Income from local renewable energy resources, including unwanted weeds and agro-residues.
• Promotes sustainable local livelihoods (operation of the power plant, jobs in new local micro-enterprises and small-scale industries).
• Higher agricultural production with adequate and timely water supply.

National and global benefit :

• Makes reliable and clean electricity available in rural areas which would otherwise continue to subsist without economic and social progress.
• Contributes to the reduction of migration to cities.
• Reduces the share of fossil fuels in the national energy balance.
• Reduces the share of coal-based electricity supply, the consequent pollution and the resulting over-stretching of the inadequate infrastructure.
• Reduces diesel consumption and air pollution, and the outflow of foreign exchange.
• In short, promotes national sustainable development.
• Helps reduce the risks of climate change by supporting directly the national and global efforts to stabilise the level of CO2 in the biosphere.

Financial Performance

Since the plants are standardised, and the financing and O&M costs vary only marginally from site to site, the financial performance of each plant will depend essentially on the biomass cost and PLF, the plant load factor.

Experience shows that most of the industry linked DesiPower plants are likely to provide a commercially acceptable ROI and IRR over a 10 or 15 year financial evaluation period, with quite a short stabilisation period. The profitability of retrofitting gasifiers to existing IC engines is even better.

The financial projections for the IRPPs located in villages are done on the basis of the expected growth of load resulting from the build up of agro and other enterprises and energy services in the village. Experience shows that a financing package can be put together to give a reasonable ROI and IRR over a 10 or 15 year financial evaluation period, provided the simultaneous financing of the power consuming micro-enterprises and energy services can also be organised. The IRPPs will need a longer period than the industry linked power plants to become profitable, depending upon the built-up of the local electric loads and energy services.