Predicting wind power now a possibility

 

According to a senior Tangedco official, National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE), an autonomous research and development institution of the ministry of new and renewable energy, would be doing wind power forecasting on a pilot basis in the state.

The Chennai-based R&D institute has tied up with Spain-based forecaster Vortex Technologies to help forecast generation in 62 MW wind farm connected to a pooling sub-station in Kayathar. “We want the pilot forecast to begin this wind season starting June. Forecasting will be extended to other wind farms in the state after seeing the success of the pilot project,” said Indian Wind Power Association (IWPA) sources.

 

“We have given the go-ahead for wind energy generator to forecast and schedule wind power on sub-station basis to facilitate better evacuation,” said a senior Tangedco official. The official said the forecast should be made on day ahead basis with a minimum of 36 hours with 70 to 80 per cent accuracy.To facilitate forecasting and scheduling by grid managers, IWPA will instal communication ABT energy meters in all the 134 Tangedco’s wind energy pooling sub-stations. A modem and centralised server would also be installed in Chennai which would consolidate and play real-time wind generation data in the monitor before the grid managers in SLDC and the forecaster, the NIWE.

 

The forecaster will simultaneously make forecasting appear on the grid manager’s monitor. “This visibility of real-time wind generation for the whole of Tamil Nadu along with forecasting will enable grid managers at SLDC to better schedule wind energy like energy from other conventional sources. This will help better evacuation of more wind energy,” IWPA source said, adding that it will cost less than Rs 5 crore.

 

“Our aim is to begin forecasting in this wind season itself. To verify accuracy of forecast, we need to monitor real-time wind generation at sub-station-level for which we need to instal ABT meters. If we do forecast for one or two years and finetune our model based on real-time generation, our accuracy level will improve,” said an NIWE official. He said wind forecasting could be provided from 15 minutes to one day, two days and up to six days ahead.

 

Backing down of windmills during the peak wind season from June to September was a bone of contention between wind generators and Tangedco in 2013-14 and 2014-15. The wind generators alleged evacuation loss of 3 billion units annually in Tamil Nadu, which has a total wind generation installed capacity of 7,373 MW. Last year, Tangedco recorded highest generation of 4,318 MW.