The Hindu Business Line : Tirupur knitwear complex plans own windmill project

THE Rs 25-crore wind energy project being planned by a private knitwear industrial complex administration in Tirupur has the novelty of taking over the power distribution from the State electricity board and supplying it to its member-units within the industrial complex under its own distribution networking.

The local distribution channels/controls to be re-laid anew within the complex premises to facilitate the in-house power distribution will also have the components for centralised energy metering, common monitoring and operating systems besides the electronic billing facility, according to the project proposal prepared by the private industrial estate.

The private knitwear industrial complex is the Tirupur Export Knitwear Industrial Complex (TEKIC) and the beneficiaries are 180-strong member units - all small and tiny units and low-tension (LT) power consumers - which have located their manufacturing facilities in the TEKIC estate at Mudalipalayam near Tirupur.

The 14-year old industrial estate was promoted and developed by the Tirupur-based knitwear exporters and the 170 of the 180 industrial sheds located in the TEKIC complex are engaged in diverse knitwear industrial products manufacturing including the knit fabrics, garmenting, labelling and packaging that finally go into knitwear exports.

The wind energy project is part of strengthening the TEKIC's infrastructure aimed at bringing down the power cost for the knitwear export manufacturing units which will be a key factor in deciding the cost competitiveness of Tirupur knitwear producers in their merchandising in the free textile regime next year, according to Mr S. Rathnasamy, President of TEKIC.

The 5-MW wind energy project drawn by the TEKIC is intended to supply an estimated 1.4 crore units of power to its member units and the power tariff is pegged at Rs 2.70 per unit against the present Rs 4.70 per unit rate of the grid power supplied by the State electricity board, a straight Rs 2 cheaper for every unit of power consumed by the units. The cost of the energy generated from the wind mill has been pegged at after adjusting the wheeling and energy banking charges to be claimed by the State electricity board for transmitting the wind energy generated from the TEKIC's turbines.

The key mover behind TEKIC's plan is the Ministry of Textiles (MoT) sponsored `textile centres infrastructure development scheme' (TCIDS) which offers cash subsidy to such infrastructure projects in well-known textile centres. TEKIC has received the `in-principle' approval for the wind energy project under TCIDS and accordingly it would stand to get 50 per cent of the project cost (or Rs 12.5 crore) as subsidy. Of the total project cost of Rs 25 crore (which includes the Rs. 3 crore for local power distribution within the complex), the TEKIC, as promoters of the project, will contribute Rs 2 crore while the banks undertaking to extend the term loan will offer Rs 10.5 crore. The remaining Rs 12.5 crore would come from the MoT.

Mr Rathnasamy and Mr N. Mahalingam, treasure of the TEKIC, told Business Line that bids received from five windmill suppliers who participated in the tenders were opened before the Joint Secretary, MoT, Mr K K Jalan, last week and the bids are to being sent to the Tamilnadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA) for technical evaluation before finalising the bids.

Marquess Financial Services Private Ltd, the city-based financial consultants which handles the TEKIC wind energy project, said the dead service cover ratio for the windmill project at 1.5 would be easily complied even at the power tariff for the TEKIC units pegged at Rs 2.70 per unit which would ensure payback of the entire principal loan in five years. The project also qualifies for project financing under the technology upgradation fund scheme, which will bring down the cost of finance cheaper by 5 per cent to the promoter of the project.

More Stories on : Non-conventional Energy | Knitwear & Hosiery | Tamil Nadu

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