A dam-top solar project of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) on the Banasura Sagar Dam at Padinharethara in Wayanad district is ready for commissioning.
“A trial run was successfully conducted recently. Power Minister Kadakampally Surendran will commission the project at Padinharethara at 3 p.m. on August 29,” KSEB Public Relations Officer J. Muhammed Ziyad told The Hindu . “This is the fifth such project in the State and the second one in the district,” he added.
The KSEB has spent Rs.4.293 crore on the project, which will generate five lakh units of power a year.
As many as 1,760 solar panels, each with a capacity of 250 Watts, have been installed on the dam top road at a length of 285 metres.
Besides, nine inverters, each with 50-KW capacity, and a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to control and monitor power generation have also been installed on the dam top as part of the project.
The power produced will be transmitted to the 33-kV substation of the KSEB at Padinharethara, Mr. Ziyad said, adding that the board was seriously considering constructing a 600-KW solar power plant on the dam top, and that a detailed project report for the proposed plant was being prepared.
Work under way
A floating solar panel with a capacity of 10 KW is successfully functioning on the dam, and the construction work on a 500-KW floating solar project, the largest such project in the country, on the dam is under way.
“Construction work for solar plants, with a total power generation capacity of 18 MW, at 13 sites in the State is under way. The first phase of the construction work on the solar power park of the Renewable Energy Corporation of Kerala in Kasaragod district is likely to be commissioned by the end of December,” Mr. Ziyad added.
