COIMBATORE: Several windmills in the State did not run for 13 to 18 hours a day for the last three days due to "grid drop".

Though they resumed operations partially since Tuesday afternoon, this problem has affected energy generation in this wind season, according to K. Kasthurirangaian, vice-chairman of the Indian Wind Power Association.

The windmills have lost about one-fourth energy generation during this season - May to September - due to grid drop, he says.

By the end of March 2006, the State had about 2,930 mw of installed capacity of windmills. During the last five months it must have gone up by at least 400 mw. However, facilities such as sub-stations, main and transmission lines have not been added commensurate with the installed capacity. "Infrastructure is not growing that fast," he says.

The State gets south-westerly winds from May to September and this is the period of maximum wind energy generation. But, with inadequate "evacuation facilities", the windmills have not run continuously during the season, leading to loss of energy at the generation stage itself.

The windmill owners have appealed to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) to ensure complete evacuation of wind energy during the remaining days of this season.

The TNEB constituted a task force last month to monitor augmentation of transmission infrastructure of wind energy.

Sale of power

Since the State has adequate energy generation, the windmill owners have suggested sale of power to States that face energy deficiency. They have also suggested to the board not to approve windmill installation in areas that have inadequate infrastructure till the transmission and distribution facilities are upgraded.

Concessions sought

Mr. Kasthurirangaian says the association has further suggested promotion of energy consuming industries in the generation centres by providing concessions in power tariff. This will bring down the cost of installing more transmission lines to the load centres. Further, energy consumption by existing industries should be encouraged between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. These will help the Board evacuate the generated power, he said.

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