Techno Electric and Engineering Company Ltd has reported a net profit of Rs 37 crore for the quarter ended September, compared with Rs 68 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year. In this plunge of profits lies the sad story of the wind industry in Tamil Nadu.

The company, along with its IFC-funded subsidiary, Simran Wind Project Pvt Ltd, has a over 190 MW wind farm in Tamil Nadu, and could have generated 120 million units of electricity more than it did, if the state-owned electricity generation and distribution company, Tangedco, had only been able to pick up the power.

Techno Electric’s generation loss, worth about Rs 50 crore, is but a small part of the huge loss in value that all the power producers in the state suffered during the wind season of June-September.

It is estimated that at least Rs 1,000 crore worth of electricity was lost due to grid ‘back-downs’.

Ironically, Techno Electric says in its Web site that it is into wind power business because of “predictable income flow and assured terms through credible power purchase agreements.”

Woes of the wind power generation in the state have been toggling between ‘grid is not available’ to ‘grid is available but Tangedco does not want wind power’.

Compounding this is the fact that the state does not allow power generation within the state to be sold outside.

Tangedco’s problem

The state-owned utility’s problem is it gets wind power at times (such as during nights) when the demand is low. During such times, it can sell power only at prices lowerthan what it pays the wind companies, making a loss.

Moreover, wind power producers — many of whom are also into other businesses such as textiles — are allowed to ‘bank’ their power, i.e., feed the grid now and take the power back some months later. Often they demand their power back during power shortage times, forcing Tangedco to buy costly power from the market to supply to them.

Worst is over?

The Chairman and Managing Director of Techno Electric, P.P. Gupta, believes that the worst is over for the wind industry in Tamil Nadu.

His confidence rests on the improving power situation in Tamil Nadu, as a consequence of which power producers in the state will not be prevented from selling their electricity to consumers outside the state.

This problem will at least be partially solved when the ‘scheduling and forecasting’ rules that the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission brought-in in July, are enforced in spirit. The rules make it mandatory for power produces to predict how much electricity they will generate in each 15-minute time block of the following day. Any deviation in actuals beyond 30 per cent will attract penalty.

Wind companies nation-wide are pleading for more time and more liberal rules. Girish Pradhan, who is set to take over as Chairman of CERC, (the head of the committee that brought in ‘scheduling and forecasting’) will take a call on the pleas.

However, Gupta has suggested in the meanwhile that the ‘state load despatch centre’ could do the ‘scheduling and forecasting’ on behalf of the power producers.

The SLDCs – the nodes where electricity generated from various points is gathered and distributed to various consumers – is better equipped to predict wind power generation of the following day, Gupta said.

SLDC would be able to predict power generation more precisely than individual companies would, he said.

He said that the power produces could pay the SLDC for its service and also undertake to pay for any penalties.

Precise wind generation forecasting by SLDC and allowing generators to sell electricity outside Tamil Nadu will help wind companies in the state turn profitable, he said.

ramesh.m@thehindu.co.in

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