Tamil Nadu, India, Generates Record Wind Power, Is Forced To Shut Down Thermal Plants
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Originally published on CleanTechies.
The monsoon season in India brings with it very high wind speeds, especially in the southern part of country. This year it has enabled record wind power generation in at least one of the states.
Tamil Nadu reported the highest-ever wind energy generation in the country. The state experienced more than 5,000 megawatts of wind power for more than 2 hours on 11 July. The highest wind generation was recorded at 7 in the evening as 5,079 megawatts.
The high wind energy generation forced the state utility to shutdown 1,020 megawatts of thermal power capacity and operate several other power plants at half of their capacity.
With a total demand of less than 14,000 megawatts on the evening of the 11th of July, wind power fulfilled more than a third of the total demand. The total energy generated from wind energy projects that day was 84.5 million kWh, which translates into 28% of the total electricity consumed in the state. The electricity generation was slightly lower than the all-time record of 99.5 million kWh.
Tamil Nadu has the largest installed wind energy capacity among all Indian states. The state has had several transmission issues, especially during the monsoon season, for absorbing all the wind energy generated. But the situation seems to have improved significantly now, as has been demonstrated by the high share of wind energy procurement.
Things may have also improved due to an advisory issued by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy which termed solar and wind energy projects as ‘must run’. This means that state utilities are obligated to procure electricity from renewable energy projects even if they have to shutdown thermal power plants.
Reprinted with permission.
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