The Hindu Business Line : ‘Replacing old wind turbines in TN will help raise output’

Chennai, Dec. 5 Replacing old, smaller capacity wind turbines in Tamil Nadu with modern, higher capacity ones will result in the electricity generation from the same area going up by as much as 2.5 times.

Tamil Nadu has about 4,000 MW of installed wind energy capacity of which it is estimated that about 1,700 MW can be re-powered or replaced with new, higher capacity turbines.

This is what the World Institute of Sustainable Energy (WISE), a Pune-based not-for-profit organisation working in the renewable energy sector, has found out after studying some of the old turbines with capacity of 250 kW. The study was conducted for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

According to Mr G.M. Pillai, Director-General, WISE, the institute studied the working of about 500 MW of the old, small capacity turbines in the State for nine months and concluded that if the machines were replaced with new, higher capacity ones, the electricity generated from the same area will go up by 2.5 times.

WISE, in its report submitted to the Ministry, has outlined the cost of re-powering the turbines, the policy changes that will be needed and the incentives that need to be provided to persuade owners of the aged turbines to go in for re-powering, according to Mr Pillai.

He, however, declined to provide the details as the report is with the Ministry. The Ministry is expected to set up a working group to go into the issue.

Incentive package

According to him, there has to be an incentive package for the small owners to give up their turbines and land to permit larger turbines to come up, or for the same owners to replace the smaller machines with higher capacity ones. “We need a policy package for re-powering the machines. Otherwise, why should the existing divest and go.”

Mr Pillai told Business Line that WISE had looked at some global models, including that followed in Denmark, Germany and the US, which had re-powered their wind turbines, and adapted them for the Indian context.

Asked about the re-powering of turbines, Mr Ramesh Kymal, Managing Director, Vestas Wind Technology India Pvt Ltd, said re-powering would definitely help increase the electricity generated from that particular area. However, a number of issues had to be addressed before it could be done.

One, at least five or six small capacity turbines would have to be removed and replaced with a large capacity machine, to maintain the minimum distance between turbines.

This would require approaching many different owners who may or may not be interested in re-powering. Then, there is the issue of depreciation in the case of those who had installed the turbines for depreciation benefits.

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