Windmills provided 35% of TN’s energy consumption on Sat

CHENNAI: In a major shot in the arm for green power advocates, renewable energy contributed 40 per cent of the State’s total energy consumption on Saturday, with the windmills alone supplying 35 per cent of it.

On Saturday, Tamil Nadu’s energy consumption stood at 340.399 million units (MU), of which 120.251 MU came from windmills and 18 MU from solar energy, contributing 138 MU or 40 per cent of the total energy consumption. The wind energy consumption of 120.251 MU by the Tangedco is also the all-time high, bettering its previous high of 111.13 MUs on July 5.

Tangedco CMD Rajesh Lakhani said the 120.25 MU wind energy absorption on July 9 could be an all-time high even in the country. “No State would have generated and absorbed so much wind power in a day,” said the official, but added that he would fact-check the data on wind power utilisation by states.

Contributing 35 per cent of the energy consumption was a major milestone for the sector, said Indian Wind Power Association chairman K Kasturirangaian, attributing Tangedco’s willingness to evacuate all the energy generated by windmills as the main reason for this.

Official sources said they were trying to utilise as much wind energy by scaling back generation at thermal power plants. “Unlike solar, there will be a lot of variations in wind power generation. If it reduces, we will bring back thermal units and also utilise hydropower,” sources said.