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The Tamil Nadu government plans to set up 4,000 MW worth of solar power generating units and 2,000 MW worth of solar parks with battery storage capacity in the near term.
The proposed projects are part of the State government’s vision of adding 20,000 MW of solar capacity with adequate battery storage, over the next 10 years, the State Energy Minister V Senthilbalaji told the Assembly on Tuesday. The energy department is proposing a solar power park in every district of the State to meet the growing demand for energy.
It is also proposing 2,000 MW worth of LNG-based power units. Under this programme, small units with capacity in the range of 18-20 MW will be established. The feedstock Regassified-LNG will be sourced from the IOC’s LNG terminal at Ennore. The power generated from these units is expected to come in handy to meet the shortfall when there would be absence of wind and solar power.
The State power distribution company Tamil Nadu Generation & Distribution Corporation Ltd (Tangedco) mulls establishing a 500 MW pumped storage hydroelectric plant each in Kanyakumari and Theni. It will also conduct feasibility studies to build pumped storage units in 11 places across the State for a total capacity of 7,000 MW. “Also, the government will undertake steps to complete the 2,000 MW Sillahalla (Nilgiris District) pumped storage hydro power plant at the earliest,” said Senthilbalaji.
The Energy Minister also said that Tangedco had planned to procure power from the market for short and medium terms to tide over the possible shortfall in power demand during October 2021-May 2022. It also plans to supply the surplus wind power to neighbouring States in order to source power during summer season.
Transformer monitoring system
Tangedco plans to implement a Transformer Monitoring System under which transformers will be monitored remotely and be connected to SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System) system. This project is expected to help address the power disruption issues quickly, calculate the T&D (transmission and distribution) losses accurately and prevent power theft, among others. There are 3,63,200 transformers in the state managed by Tangedco.
The Energy Department will also be spending ₹7,892 crore to boost power supply related infrastructure that will include setting up of fly ash conveying system, new substations, transformers and feeders, among others. During this fiscal, Tangedco plans to provide 1 lakh new agriculture service connections.
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