The Hindu Business Line : Poor transmission causing wastage, say wind energy units

`The electricity board hardly does any assessment before issuing NoC on whether it possessed the required facility to clear the energy generated by the windmill farms.'

Wind turbines at a farm near Udumalpet. - M. Periasamy

Coimbatore , Aug. 11

MEMBERS of the Dindigul-based Tamil Nadu Spinning Mills Association (TASMA) have said that the wind turbine generators (WTGs) put up by them are unable to harness energy fully from the current high wind season because of the inadequate capacity in transmission lines between generation centres and distribution (load) centres provided by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB).

TASMA has blamed it on the non-availability of sufficient feeder lines/sub-stations needed to give the grid connectivity for the wind energy generated from the wind farms.

The inadequate transmission facility has led to stoppage of wind turbines at fixed intervals `orally' sought by the EB officials.

This, in turn, has resulted in `high wastage' of the precious wind energy, thereby negatively impacting on the return on investment on WTGs, the assocation said in a representation to the Chairman of TNEB.

According to Mr K. Venkatachalam, Chief Advisor to TASMA, the loss of energy generation by WTGs has been substantial and for example, a WTG of 1,250 kW capacity, which used to produce 25/26 lakh units in the previous seasons, could generate less than 21 lakh units this time. This is despite the current wind season remaining good and the turbines kept in full working condition.

The TASMA official held that there has been a spurt in the number of WTGs in the last one year with generation capacity of 700 MW (the State's total installed wind energy capacity is put at 2040 MW).

But the feeder lines/substations to clear the power generated from the wind farms to load centres had not kept pace with the number of wind mills erected, although the TNEB had kept issuing no-objection certificates (NoC) for new WTGs.

It added that the board hardly does any assessment before issuing NoC on whether it possessed the required facility to clear the energy generated from the wind farms.

The issuance of NoC is taken as an assurance by the WTG promoters that the board would provide the total grid connection for the power generated by them. TASMA suggested that if the TNEB is not able to ensure the clearance of all the energy produced by the wind mills, it could as well stop issuing NoCs for new WTGs.

Though the promoters of WTGs in the State allege that wind mill operators were orally asked to halt production for specified hours in a day to tide over the transmission problem, informed sources, however, maintain that the `stop production' was not for all the wind mills and the problem (of transmission) is encountered only in cases relating to the 100 kV transmission lines.

Here too, the electricity board is seized of the issue and hopes to rectify it at the earliest.

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