Cement and Energy

\\T\1> F:\R~l -USER'S EXPERIE:"\CE :\T ~1:\DRAS CE,IENTS * Introduction M adras Cements Ltd. (MCL) has three cement plants, two located in Tamil Nadu and one in Andhra Pradesh. MCL has a total installed capacity of 3 million tonnes per annum. Blended cement of the pozzolana variety is predominantly manufactured by these plants. Case for Renewable Energy Energy forms a major chunk in the manufacturing cost of cement accounting for approximately 40%. Out of this, electrical energy forms 50% and the cost of coal the other 50% . In order to maintain the cost of production under control, it is necessary that the energy cost, both electrical and thermal, be kept to the barest minimum and reduced further. It is a policy with Madras Cements that continuous efforts are necessary to maintain energy costs under check. In this light, it has always been on the look-out for technologies/alternative sources of energy, to always keep itself ahead in competition and product development. Madras Cements' going in for wind energy as a major technological improvement in their main activity of cement production is an example of this. The Background In the late 80's and the early 90' s, when Madras Cements was contemplating expansion of their installed capacity, the necessity to augment its power sources was very much felt. In such a situation, MCL felt that the only way to augment its power resources was through non- conventional sources and identified wind power as a potential source for the future. With the fillip offered by the Central Government in the form of subsidy and the TNEB to set up wind farms, MCL plunged at right earnest into this area. For example, the electrical energy consumption at the Ramasamy Raja Nagar plant is to the tune of 70 lac units per month , and meeting thjs requirement with conventional diesel sets (available at that time) was like running a factory by itself. The experience of generating power form wind energy in other countries was also taken into account. Though capacity utilisation from wind farm would be low and the wi nd availability seasonal, it was still thought that it would be. viable to venture into wind power generation. Project Implementation In order to set up a windfarm, MCL looked at the data published by Ms. Annamani in Indian Meteorological Research. Of the potential sites in Tamil Nadu, Muppandal near Kanyakumari appeared more promising, and with the advice of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, it was decided to set up the wind farm in this location, as the wind velocity available was around 25 metres per second. A technical evaluation of the available wind electric generators (WEG) was carried out and accordingly Micon wind electric generators were selected for this purpose. The first wind farm was set up at Muppandal wi th an installed capacity of 4 MW (16 WEG's). With the experience gained in operation, additional WEG's were installed making a total of 52 machines in 1995. As the Muppandal area was getting saturated by then, MCL extended their wind farm activities to Udumalpet area and a total of 69 WEG's were set up during the period 1995-96. MCL's wind farm project had to face a number of problems in the initial stages, such as the slow creation of infrastructure facilities by TNEB for evacuating the power generated, e~hanced land prices owin g to the entry of too many private participants and antagonisation of the local population. * Ba.<ed m1 a paper presented at C!Fs Conference 011 Re11ewab/e E11ergy, Chelllltli, 1999 4 - ..