One Nation, One Gas Grid

Subject :Science and Technology

Context:

The national gas grid project has slowed down, with progress in parts of southwest and southeast India yet to pick up.

Concept:

“One Nation, One Gas Grid”

Currently the Indian Power system for planning and operational purposes is divided into five regional grids.The integration of regional grids, and thereby establishment of National Grid, was conceptualized in the early nineties.
One Nation, One Gas Grid refers to the joining of several regional grids, creating a national grid, and supplying multiple stakeholders, including the central government, state governments, the public sector, and the commercial sector, with natural gas-produced energy.
Thus, with one nation and one gas grid, the energy produced from natural gas will be supplied to the whole country via a single source.
The country is set to expand the natural gas grid to 34,500 Km under One Nation One Gas Grid. The regasification capacity of existing 42 MMTPA will be expanded to 61 MMTPA by year 2022.
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) is the organisation responsible for approving the construction of pipelines.
The objectives of the National Gas Grid – using a single source for removing regional imbalance with regard to access for natural gas and provide clean and green fuel, connect gas sources to major demand centres and development of City Gas Distribution Networks in various cities for the supply of CNG and PNG, pave way for establishment of vibrant Electricity market facilitating trading of power across regions

About Natural gas produced energy:

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) needs to be converted back to its gaseous state to use as a fuel for power generation, heating and cooking.
This process takes place at large import terminals where LNG carriers discharge their LNG cargo before it is transported further to the end-user through a pipeline gas network.
There are five LNG terminals in India—Dahej, Hazira, Dabhol, Kochi and Ennore.
Under the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) Act 2006, PNGRB also grants the authorization to the entities for developing a City Gas Distribution (CGD) network (including PNG network) in a specified Geographical Area (GA) of the country.
- CGD sector has four distinct segments “ Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) predominantly used as auto-fuel, and Piped Natural Gas (PNG) used in in domestic, commercial and Industrial segments”.