CHENNAI: Strong winds in Tamil Nadu have brought cheer to the state's power managers and consumers with energy generation from wind going from zero to around 3,500 MW in the past fortnight. For consumers, the rise in wind energy could mean further reduction in power cuts by 30 minutes in the city and by up to two hours in other districts.
Chief minister J Jayalalithaa had at the beginning of last month announced that the scheduled two-hour daily power cuts in the city would be reduced to one hour and the four-hour cut in other districts would be reduced to three hours with effect from June 2, due to stable generation of wind energy since early May.
Wind energy production, TNEB sources said, will go up at least for the next two months owing to favourable weather in the southern part of the state where most of the windmills are located. In the past fortnight, wind energy generation touched an all-time high of 3,830MW on June 26 and 3,730 MW on June 30 during peak hour at 7.30 pm. Except on July 1 when the wind energy production was 2,725MW, generation of wind power remained above 3,000MW in the past fortnight. "We even stopped the daily an hour of load shedding in the state on June 26 (Tuesday) as we met the total demand of 11,283 MW that day,"a TNEB official said.
The state accounts for 7,034 MW of the country's wind energy generation capacity of around 14,000MW per year. This includes an additional 660 MW between April and October last year. Windmills at Muppanthal in Kanyakumari, Panagudi in Tirunelveli, Kayathar in Thoothukudi and Palladam in western Tamil Nadu are all generating power. At present, TN's total electricity demand was around 12,000MW per day whereas the generation is at 8,000MW per day. TNEB has been introduced six hour power cuts in districts and two hours in the city daily from February-end. Unscheduled power cuts range between six hours to 13 hours a day in the districts.
With several power projects nearing completion or about to start production including the Kudankulam nuclear plant, TNEB officials are hopeful that the situation will only get better. Stage-II of North Chennai Thermal Power Station is being expanded, with two units of 600MW each expected to be commissioned before July and October this year. Mettur Thermal Power Station is also being expanded and is expected to add 600MW capacity by mid-2012. "As the southwest monsoon has began in neighbouring Kerala, the power demand in the state will ease further as cooler weather will mean less consumption of energy both by domestic consumers and farmers," said V Raghu, director, Indian Wind Turbuine Manufacturers Association.
Source: TOI
