From Swati Dayal
Chennai, Jul 20 (KNN)  The Indian Wind Power Association has asked the central electricity regulatory commission (CERC) to stop unscheduled and unforecast backing down of windmills by the State Load Despatch Centre (SLDC).

Wind energy generation is not at the maximum even during peak time because of evacuation problems, according to chairman of the Indian Wind Power Association, K Kasthoorirangaian.

Backing down of windmills has badly affected the economy of investing in windmills and finances of small industries that are dependent on generation of wind energy for their economic survival, he added.

Tamil Nadu has over 7,000 MW of installed wind energy capacity and according to data available on the website of the Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation (Tantransco), wind energy generation on July-17 morning was 2,325 MW and on July-16, evening it was 2,586 MW.

Evacuation of wind energy has declined during the last two weeks. Wind mills are facing shutdown for 8-20 hours a day during peak wind season, said Kasthoorirangaian.
Every day 25 million units not evacuated is equivalent to loss of Rs 10 crores per day.

“Tangedco and investors will lose around Rs 1000 crores during 2013 wind season,” said IWPA.

Last month over 75 million units of electricity were consumed from the wind energy generated on some days.

However, on July 13, just 48 million units of wind energy were consumed and on July 14, it was 61 million units, he said. If evacuation improves, the energy generated can be absorbed by large scale industries, which are facing power cuts and restrictions on consumption, he added.

“Wind farms have no control on wind mills and unable to proceed with forecasting and scheduling from July-15,” he said in a letter to CERC.

“Request NDLC to order forthwith SDLC Tamil Nadu to stop backing down of Wind Mills and CERC to postpone implementation of RRF,” he added.

 “SLDC Tamil Nadu without schedule and intimation is pushing out /backing down wind mills in Tamil Nadu by rotation every day for 8-20 hours…wasting around on average of 25 million units of energy every day. So the owner of the wind mill does not have control over the operation for nearly 24 hours in a day,” IWMA Chairman added in the letter.

The association had even appealed to the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) to step up evacuation.

At a meeting with the officials of Tangedco in Chennai on Wednesday, the association members explained that nearly 25 million units of wind power were not evacuated a day and evacuation loss is nearly 35 per cent.

“Evacuation of Wind Energy has come down from 74 M.U per day in July 2012 to 49 M.U per day in July 2013. Wind Energy evacuation loss of 25 M.U per day or about 35 per cent,” IWMA Chairman said in a letter to TANGEDO.

The association has sought relaxation of restriction and control measures for High Tension industrial and commercial consumers.

These consumers have 40 per cent power cut and restriction on consumption of grid power in the peak hours.

Wind energy generation is high during evening hours.

The peak hour restriction should be relaxed and power cut should be reduced to 10 per cent for two months, till the end of the windy season, he said.  

Wind energy is very crucial for the MSME sector.  It is clean and prime source of energy that meets requirements of high demand industries like textiles, foundry etc. especially in view of the frequent power cuts and high costs of power. (KNN)