Tangedco uses wind energy to meet increased demand

On Thursday, the state’s peak demand touched 13,352 Mega Watt after it hovered around 12,000 MW for the past two weeks owing to the complete lockdown. As the easing of the restrictions led to increased power demand, the Tangedco also made full use of the windmills as it contributed 4,061 MW to the peak demand.

The daily energy consumption stood at 312 million units with wind energy accounting for 89 MU.

Taking into account the solar energy generation of 21 MU, the renewable energy sources contributed one-third of the daily energy requirement.

A wind power generator said that Tangedco should continue to evacuate as much wind power as possible from now on. “This year, wind speeds started picking up since May 16, but the power utility curtailed the wind power generation as the power demand went down. We have been urging the utility not to back down the windmills during the peak wind season as the generation lost is lost forever,” the wind generator lamented.

He said that the wind power association has written to Chief Minister MK Stalin seeking his intervention to reduce wind generation curtailment.

He said that the association has been giving various suggestion to avoid curtailment of wind power generation through ramping down thermal power station during windy season and shutting down thermal stations for annual maintenance. “Excess energy should be utilised to pump water so that existing and sanctioned pumped hydro storage facilities could be used for effective integration of wind energy into the grid. The utility could sell the currently curtailed energy through power exchange,” he added.