Amended wind mill repowering policy gives scope for repowering 2,000 MW of wind mills

Of the totally installed wind energy capacity of more than 10,000 MW, there is scope for about 2,000 MW to go for repowering because of the amended wind energy repowering policy announced by the Tamil Nadu government last week.

A.D. Thirumoorthy, Chief Technical Advisor of the Indian Wind Power Association, told The Hindu on Thursday that the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has assessed that Tamil Nadu has wind mills of nearly 4,000 MW that can be repowered. The amended policy meets most of the demands of the wind energy generators, especially banking of the energy generated. However, there are two challenges for the generators – the policy does not permit adjustment of the banked energy for power consumed at night hours. And, aggregation of the wind mills that need to be repowered will be difficult.

Most of the wind energy generators have invested in solar energy too. If the banked wind energy is not permitted for adjustment at night hours, the same may be repeated for solar energy too.

Further, not all wind energy generators have the wind turbines at the same location. If a 250 KW turbine should be replaced with a one MW turbine, it should match the capacity of the nearby wind turbine. This may be an issue to many generators. The wind mill owners may, instead, opt for life extension, he said.

According to the Southern India Mills’ Association, many of the wind mills of the textile industry in the State are currently more than 20 years old. Durai Palanisamy, chairman, SIMA, said retention of the annual banking system, reduction in Infrastructure Development Charges from the earlier proposal of ₹30 lakh per MW for five years to ₹50,000 per MW/annum for life extension/refurbishment and simplification of procedures for obtaining life extension certificates from Chartered Engineers are some of the industry-friendly measures.

Pradeep Natarajan, former president of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Consumers Association, said the amended policy introduces flexibility, reduces financial burden, and simplifies compliance while encouraging modernisation of aging wind assets in the State. The rationalisation of development charges and performance thresholds is a positive step towards sustainable capacity enhancement in Tamil Nadu’s wind sector.