Stakeholders of the wind energy sector will meet here on Wednesday to discuss the main issue faced by the sector: payment of dues by the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) for wind energy supplied to the grid and the need for total evacuation of the wind energy generated.
The Indian Wind Power Association chairman K. Kasthoorirangaian told The Hindu here on Tuesday that Tamil Nadu had nearly 2,000 wind farms. The windmill owners, maintenance service providers and machinery manufacturers would attend the meeting.
The dues were pending for bills submitted after August, 2010. The windmill owners had invested about Rs.35,000 crore and nearly Rs.25,000 crore of this was bank loans. The investors had to repay the loans. If the dues were not paid on time, it would not be possible for several windmill owners to repay the loans, he said.
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The average size of a wind farm in the State is 2.59 MW. Only 50 per cent of the windmills were for captive use. The State had several investors who had installed just one or two windmills to supply the energy generated to the grid. The government should simplify the norms for third party sales and should not insist on scheduling the wind energy generation, he said.
The TANGEDCO had reduced the power cut for High Tension (HT) industries to 20 per cent from the existing 30 per cent. Welcoming this move, Mr. Kasthoorirangaian said the corporation had increased the evacuation of wind energy generated in the State during the last one week.
It should go for total evacuation of the wind energy generated as the installed capacity of wind energy in the State was over 5,800 MW.
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