Tamil Nadu can double green power in 10 years: Experts

This will mean that people will get access to cheaper and clean power with the state’s existing electricity generation fleet. IEEFA’s new report ‘Electricity Transformation in India: A case study of Tamil Nadu’, expects offshore wind to emerge as a new, cost competitive source of electricity generation while investments in new coal and nuclear-based projects could cause further financial stress to the firms involved. 

The report warned that Tamil Nadu, which is building 22,500 MW of expensive coal-fired power plants, when the existing plants are used at a low of 62% as opposed to the optimal 85%, will render both the new and existing plants financially impractical. According to the report, the wind farms in Tamil Nadu — a country leader in terms of wind capacity — has almost reached the end of their durability. If restored and renewed, the state can easily double its current capacity of power produced by wind. 

“Despite being a world leader in wind energy, Tamil Nadu’s wind farms use old and outdated technology. Upgrading or “repowering” existing turbines alone could double the state’s leading wind energy capacity,” said Tim Buckley, Director of Energy Finance Studies Australasia, IEEFA. 

“Also, leveraging the huge fall in the cost of solar and wind power (with renewable tariffs falling almost 50% since the start of 2016) offers an opportunity for power utilities to turn profitable,” he added. 

S Nagalsamy, member (Retd), Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission, said that for Tamil Nadu, renewable energy is the way forward. “Here, there is good wind speed for five or six months during the south west monsoon, and solar power can be generated for most part of the day. We can easily manage with electricity generated by solar and wind,” he said.  

However, there is a technical glitch, pointed out the expert. “There could be a grid management problem – as the solar and wind energy are inconsistent – for instance, if the wind is not strong enough, energy cannot be generated. In such case, we can supplement it with hydel energy or gas plants. But for that, we need to devise a method for storing energy to and an effective grid management system,” said Nagalsamy.