Load shedding as wind energy production falls
Tangedco says power shortage will be overcome soon
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-09-06 06:36 GMT
Chennai: With a sudden fall in wind energy production over the last two days and combined with outages faced by the state and central generating stations (CGS), power managers had to resort to load shedding in a few parts of the state.
Till a few days ago, the state had been enjoying no load shedding thanks to a combination of factors such as wind energy, increased supply from the newly commissioned state and central thermal power stations and copious flow into hydel reservoirs.
Since September 2, Tamil Nadu has been witnessing load shedding. Tangedco on September 2 met evening peak demand of 13,558 MW without any load shedding with wind mills supplying 1841 MW. The next day, Tangedco was able to meet a peak demand of only 12,397 MW with a deficit of 930 MW due to fall in wind generation to 419 MW.
Daily energy supply from wind mills came to 8.2 million units on Friday from 39.5 million units on Tuesday. Stating that the fall in wind generation is a temporary phenomenon, a senior Tangedco official said generation from wind mills is expected to pick up from Monday as per the forecast.
The wind season will last till September end. Besides, the state has been deprived of 934 MW of its share from CGS due to outages faced by some thermal power stations. The CGS units under forced outage includes a 500 MW unit of Vallur plant, two 500 MW units of newly commissioned NTPL plant at Tuticorin and 250 MW NLC expansion.
“The delay in bringing back 1000 MW Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant which is under annual maintenance since June 24, is another reason for power shortage,” the official said. However, power shortage would be overcome as the 600 MW Unit II of North Chennai stage II and another 210 mw unit of North Chennai Stage I are expected to commence generation on Sunday after completing annual maintenance, he said.