Tamil Nadu needs to improve grid for wind energy generation

• 8 years ago (2015-07-20)
• David Flin

North America 1004 Renewables 757

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Madhusudan Khemka, Chairman of the Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association (IWTMA), said that the Indian state of Tamil Nadu needs to improve its transmission grid capability to allow it to increase its wind power capacity. He said that more efficient power evacuation and upgrading the grid with new technology was essential to ensure companies continued to invest in wind power in the state.

Currently, Tamil Nadu has a total wind power capacity of around 1000 MW. However, most of the units are over 15 years old. “In addition,” Khemka said, “These machines are small capacity machines ranging between 200 kW and 1 MW and occupy locations with good wind speeds.”

He added: “The unreliability of the grid infrastructure has led to poor evacuation of power. As a result, getting owners and manufacturers of wind turbines to replace their turbines with bigger ones at this time is difficult. Delayed payments by Tamil Nadu Electricity Board for the power supplied is also an added factor. Inter-state transmission lines need to be opened to allow access to other states. Now is the right time for inter-state policy alignment, as it has been made mandatory for every state to reduce its carbon footprint and use renewable sources of energy.”