Rain, wind energy stave off power crisis

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Chennai: Thanks to southwest monsoon and wind power generation, Tamil Nadu remains a power surplus state at times.
 
Due to sporadic rains across the state and downward spiral of mercury level, the power demand has fallen by 500 MW to 11,500 MW. The state’s power demand was hovering around 12,000 MW during this summer. 
 
“The fall in power demand and higher wind power generation has helped the state to remain a power surplus one at times during night,” the official told DC. 
 
However, the official said that it was impossible to quantify power surplus, as the wind power generation is highly unreliable in nature. “There was no load shedding in the city for the past three weeks expect for some faults while the duration of load shedding in the districts is much less,” a senior official said.
 
The state was facing a deficit of 3,000-3,500 MW a day leading to long hours of power cut in the districts ranging from 10-12 hours a day till recently.  With the picking up of wind power generation in the first week of May, the state is seeing a relief from power cuts. 
 
The peak wind power season is between June and September coinciding with the southwest monsoon. With a total installed capacity of 7,149 MW, the windmills contribute nearly 30-40 per cent of the state’s total power demand during the June-September period. 
 
“This year, wind power generation picked up much earlier than expected. Wind energy generation has nearly doubled in May this year compared to same period last year. Wind energy generation has gone up to 1,440 million units in May this year from 790 MU in May last year,” said an official.