Hudhud offers relief from outages

Chennai: Power consumers have got a temporary reprieve from load shedding thanks to cyclone Hudhud propelled wind power generation.

According to Tangedco sources, no load shedding was imposed on the domestic consumers, particularly in rural parts of the districts, for the past three days due to increase in wind power generation.

The wind energy generation has gone up from 1.51 million units on October 1 to 37.61 MU on October 12. With the increase in the wind power generation, the quantum of load shedding imposed on the consumers dropped from 22.01 MUs on October 1 to 4.54 MU on October 9 and no load shedding was being imposed in the state since October 10.

Normally, the wind power generation is minimal during this time of the year said a private wind producer. “Wind mills are generating 30 to 40 million units a day over the past few days,” he said, adding that the generation picked up due to non-seasonal winds. Usually, the peak wind power season lasts between June and September and there will be bare minimum generation during October-December season, he said.

S.R. Ramanan, director, Area Cyclone Warning Centre (ACWC), Regional Meteorological Centre, Chennai, cited cyclone Hudhud that made landfall near Visakhapatnam with wind speed of 195 kmph as the reason for picking up of wind power generation.

He said that because of the cyclone, winds become westerly and it helped wind power generation. “Once the cyclonic system moves very far north, the wind speed will recede,” he said, adding that it is only a temporary phenomenon.

The power restriction to industrial and commercial establishments was re-imposed on September 23 within three months of the state government lifting it from June 1 after wind power generation dropped.

The power demand-supply gap was estimated at about 2,000 MW as against a demand of 13,500 MW.A