Tamil Nadu Generating, Evacuating And Selling Record Wind Energy – says IWPA

Tamil Nadu is  generating and selling wind power which is promoting the cause of renewables. K. Kasthurirangaian, chairman of Indian Wind Power Association (IWPA), has said that Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation (Tantransco) is doing a good job of evacuating maximum wind energy and the organization should continue the heightened evacuation of wind energy in future also. The excess wind energy that the state has should continue to be marketed at the power exchanges, said Kasthurirangaian.

The IWPA chairman held that Tamil Nadu didn’t resort to grid curtailment in April, 2022 and evacuated higher wind energy. The net result is that wind energy production in April and its simultaneous evacuation in April-May period was as strong as 1,914 million units. In the same period last year, the total wind energy evacuation stood at just 383 million units.

Kasthurirangaian stated, “We are thankful to the government of Tamil Nadu and SLDC of Tantransco for selling the excess wind energy in the power exchange and not grid curtailing wind mills.” It was also pointed out that Tamil Nadu had sold 4.5 lakh units of wind energy at a price of Rs 12 per unit at power exchange.

Tamil Nadu has over 8,100 MW installed wind energy capacity and May to September are the peak windy months in the State. The state also happens to be the highest wind energy installer in India and winds this year have been of good speed. Tantransco is expected to continue to generate, evacuate and sell maximum wind energy.

The chairman added, “The State can sell wind energy worth more than ₹3,000 crore a year if it continues to sell excess wind energy generated throughout the year. The State has just made a start and it should continue selling excess power at the exchange.”

The news should make for good reading at a time when the country is balancing its power demand and supply on a knife’s edge.

The MNRE Minister, RK Singh had informed recently that the government will be inviting bids for the development of 2000 MW of wind energy of which, 1000 MW will be installed in Tamil Nadu only. Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh are other key states in wind energy capacity installations. According to the MNRE, India had an installed capacity of wind projects of more than 39.25 GW by the end of March, 2021.

According to the India Wind Energy Outlook 2025 report, India is expected to all about 20 GW of wind energy by 2025.