TN faces power cuts amid high demand; wind energy turns white knight
Wind energy season has started pretty early this year, with more than 1,000 MW being generated during the peak hour over the past few days
On the night of April 20, many areas in Tamil Nadu faced power cuts from evening onwards, when the peak demand shot up.
While State Power Minister Senthil Balaji took to Twitter to state that 750 MW from several Central thermal units shut power supply, sources in Tangedco said a total of 796 MW was lost, as thermal units in Vallur, Neyveli, Kudgi and other places tripped.
“We did not get 200 MW from NTPL based in Thoothukudi. There are two thermal units of 500 MW each capacity and Tamil Nadu was to get 200 MW, but this stopped. Similarly, the Neyveli New Thermal Power Plant stopped power supply to the extent of 300 MW,” said a senior Tangedco official.
Apart from these two Central thermal units, 115 MW from the Kudgi NTPC thermal unit was not available and a total of 185 MW from Neyveli thermal units also stopped.
“It was a dark day for Tamil Nadu, as a total of 796 MW of thermal power supply was stopped suddenly. We could not get power from the Electricity Exchange as many private power generators could not generate power due to shortage of coal,” said the official.
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Wind power came in handy for Tangedco, as nearly 30 million units were already available and used immediately. “Apart from wind power, we had to depend on private power generators and within a few hours, we were able to increase the power supply,” said the official.
“The situation is much better since Thursday morning and power supply is normal from thermal, solar and nuclear units,” the official added.
Wind generation has begun early this year
Meanwhile, wind energy season has started pretty early this year, with more than 1,000 MW being generated during the peak hour over the past few days. This has provided some relief to Tangedco from purchasing thermal power from private generators.
The wind power season in Tamil Nadu is generally between May 15 and September 15, when the southwest monsoon is active in most parts of the country. But this year, the season has more or less started in mid-April and the forecast also shows that wind generation will be better.
At present, due to the upper air cyclonic circulation, it has been raining continuously in southern districts as well as Cauvery delta districts. Due to this, there has been good wind generation. In the last 24 hours, wind power evacuation has been around 33.990 million units.
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Last year, the wind power season started very late as the southwest monsoon dilly dallied after starting in May in Kerala. Due to this, the wind power generation did not pick up till June end.
“We expect this year’s wind power generation will be much better compared to last year. The forecast also shows that the wind power generation will increase in the next 15 days,” said a Tangedco official.
The forecast has been done by a private company, which has experience in forecasting wind generation for various private power generators.
