Centre floats tenders for offshore wind projects in Tamil Nadu

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has floated tenders for offshore wind power projects at Dhanushkodi in Tamil Nadu. The tender for 4,000 MW or 4 GW wind projects was issued on Monday (November 14). According to the tender document, the selection of developers will be through an international competitive bidding process.

The scheduled date for commissioning of the full capacity of the project shall be the date as on 48 months from the effective date of the agreement.

The grid connectivity and long-term open access to the grid will be in the scope of the offshore wind power developer and the energy generated will be consumed in captive mode or sold to third parties under open access framework or through power exchange.

Phase-wise commissioning

“The National Institute of wind energy or its designated agency will issue a letter of consent to the selected developer for carrying out the offshore wind measurement and other surveys after obtaining requisite clearances from concerned ministries according to the national offshore wind energy policy,” said the official document.

The developer shall set up the offshore wind projects, including the offshore pooling station at the voltage level of 220 kV. Metering for the purpose of energy accounting shall be done at respective onshore pooling stations, said the document.

Also read: Centre to invite bids for offshore wind power project off TN coast soon

The minimum capacity for acceptance of first part commissioning shall be 100 MW or 50% of the allocated project capacity, whichever is lower. The projects with capacity more than 500MW can be commissioned in parts of at least 200MW each, with the last part being the balance capacity.

Tamil Nadu will get offshore wind between June 15 to January 15 and that too round-the-clock without any break in between, says a study done for Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco).

First such project in Asia-Pacific region

Sources in the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) said the 4 GW offshore wind power project will be the first such project in the Asia-Pacific region. In June this year, the ministry held discussions on the transmission and evacuation infrastructure required for offshore wind projects of 10 GW total capacity off the coasts of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

Also read: Are big wind energy projects feasible? Testing unit in TN’s Dhanushkodi will help analyse

“On behalf of Tangedco, we conducted a study in and around Dhanushkodi and Palk Strait areas. The study says that Tamil Nadu will get offshore wind between June and January and unlike UK or other Europe countries, the offshore wind power will be continuous between June 15 and January 15,” said a senior Tangedco official, who accompanied a team to Scotland a few months ago.

In European countries, while the offshore wind power is continuous, at times they have to depend on other power sources as the wind suddenly stops. “Even during the onshore wind power season in Tamil Nadu, we have our thermal units on standby as suddenly wind power generation comes down. But with offshore wind power, we are confident of not using any thermal unit for power source,” said the official.