Mitigating Environmental Impact by Optimizing Base Load Generation in Energy Mix

Optimally efficient use of fossil fuel is need of the hour. For efficient use of fossil fuels, it is imperative that optimisation of base load capacity indicative value of thermal power plants is attempted. The paper strives to arrive at the same. Since data of yester years are available for the state of Maharashtra, this paper uses 2019 data to work-out the optimum base load capacity, collated from trends as the lowest of average of the average hourly demand. The costs of each of the fossil fuel are ascertained based on the extant regulations of Central Electricity Regulatory Commission and Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission. The cost analysis for various combinations of energy mix is also presented in this work. Such determination can also help diminish the environmental impact by reducing the cost of generation. This will also support GOI efforts to increase share of RE generation to 40%.