Thermal units on standby as wind, sun power State

On Tuesday, 12 units of thermal power plants belonging to both Tangedco and CGS, with a combined capacity of 4800 MW, were under reserve shutdown to accommodate renewable energy.

Six units of North Chennai and Mettur thermal power plants with a combined generating capacity of 1650 MW and another six units of central generating stations at Vallur and Kudgi with a capacity of 3150 MW are under forced standby.

A senior Tangedco official said the utility has been taking all steps to evacuate both wind and solar power as much as possible by backing down the thermal power plants. “With the wind power generation peaking, the State utility has been receiving over 70 million units of wind energy daily from the windmills. In the morning, we are also receiving solar power,” the official said, adding: “The State’s total power consumption on Monday stood at 255 million units. Of the total consumption, the wind and solar energy alone contributed 91 MU.”

A wind power generator said if the Tangedco evacuated all the wind energy, the daily generation would easily cross 95 to 100 million units. “After witnessing all-time high wing power evacuation of 12,510 MU in 2017-18 from generation capacity of 7860 MW, the evacuation has come down to 10,849 MU in 2019-20 with total wind capacity of 8,506 MW. Last fiscal, the windmills witnessed grid curtailment of 370 hours,” he said.