Wind energy - Coimbatore leads the pack ..

Evacuation of wind energy generated from wind mills in Coimbatore district will be almost 100 per cent now as the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board has created the requisite additional infrastructure.

A 200 MVA sub-station at Ponnapuram (near Dharapuram), four feeder stations and the required transmission lines are some of the works completed during the last six months

At the function, the chairman of the board, Hans Raj Verma, assured the wind mill operators that investments in the State would yield better returns as Tamil Nadu had the potential for wind energy generation and the board would provide adequate infrastructure for evacuation of the energy generated.

The member (generation), S.Arounassalame, said that efforts were initiated last September to create the required infrastructure. The works were completed with the support of wind turbine manufacturers and wind energy producers. By the end of December this year he was hopeful of completing the measures taken up in Tirunelvelli and Kanyakumari areas too to achieve complete evacuation of wind energy generated in those areas.

The chief engineer of the board, Coimbatore, S. Shanmuganandam, said with complete evacuation of the wind energy generated in this area, availability of power would improve. The capacity created now would also be able to take care of the new wind mills that were expected to be installed in the district in the next one year. Another sub-station of 200 MVA at Palladam was likely to be completed by this October.

The association chairman, P.R. Ramasubrahmaneya Rajha, said wind mill installations saw significant growth during the last two or three years. Tamil Nadu had about 50 per cent of the total wind mill installed capacity of 7,113 MW in the country. Of the 3,476 MW installed capacity in the State, 1,373 MW was in Coimbatore district. Wind electric generators should operate to the maximum possible extent during the windy season. Only with adequate sub-station capacity and transmission line capacity could there be full evacuation of the energy generated.

Courtesy : THE HINDU