At the recently concluded annual general body meeting of Tamil Nadu (TN) turbine owners they stressed the need to improve power evacuation rates from the grids.
“The evacuation of power from the grids continues to be at 85%,” said the president of Indian Wind Power Association, K Kasthurirangaian. “The grids often stop working or does not work efficiently, so the power is also not evacuated fully. The government should work on constantly stabilizing and improving the grids.
While power generated not being fully evacuated itself costs losses running into crores of rupees for turbine investors, the delay in payments is a further blow. “Payments for TANGEDCO get delayed by a year at least. So, many investors have bank interests to service and in turn have to delay payment of interests,” said a turbine owner. “Many new investors hesitate to put up wind turbines on bank loans.”
Turbine owners also appealed to the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) to assist state governments with funds to upgrade their infrastructure so repowering of areas with old turbines can be done.
Reference- TOI, ET, The Hindu