Cement and Energy

CIIETTINAD CEMENT'S WIND FARM C onsequent on the encouragement given by the Go,·ernment of India to promote non-conventional energy sources, Chettinad Cement Corporation Ltd. , decided to set up a wind farm and this was formally inaugurated by our Chai rman and Managing Director, Dr. M.A.M. Ramaswamy on 7th September 1994. This constituted the lst phase of implementation of our Wind Farm Project which comprised 4 phases . Go' ernmrnt Encouragement The Central Government had announced that investment done 111 installing wind farms can be depreciated as under: Total, i.e. 100%, in the 1st year itself, if the wind farms were commissioned on or before 31.3. 1997. Land Rrquirement The land requirement for a wind farm mainly depends upon the blade diameter of the Wind Energy Generators (WEG) to be installed. In a row, the spacing between two V.'EG· s hould be 10 times the blade diameter. The spacing between two rows. should be 13 times the blade diameter. A total of around 1200 acres of land has been purchased for all the 4 phases. and the Wind Farm ts located in and around Poolavadi area near Coimbatore. Pha'ir'> of lmplrmentation of the Project Dew ils of the successive phases are as follows : Pha'c I Comprised 16 nos. of 250 KW WEG's which wen: commissioned 111 September 1994. The total cost wa <; Rs. 13 19.42 lakh. Pha\c II Comprised 26 nos. of 225 KW WEG's which were commissioned during March 1995 and a dedicated 22 K \V power line was laid from the Wind Farm substat1on (Tl\EI3). The total cost was Rs. 2227.64 lakh. Pha,t· lll :Comprised 12 nos. of400 KW WEG's which "ere commissioned in August-September 1995. The pro.Jcct cost was Rs. 1764.81 lakh. Phaw I\ Comprised 12 nos. of 225 KW WEG's which \\'ere commissioned during March 1996. The total cost nf thl<; \\'<lS Rs. I 09~.05 lakh. ' ln total, there are 66 nos. of WEG's in the Farm with an installed capacity of 17.35 MW. Performance Thottgh it has been declared by the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (fREDA) and the Wind Energy Deptt. of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) that the wind availability co1Tesponds to 22% of the installed capacity in a year, we have achieved a maximum power generation up to 17 to 19%. The yearwise generation figures are as under : Year Power Generation in KW 1995-96 16240925 1996-97 26009793 1997-98 23610894 1-4-98 - 31-1 0-98 25741959 Reasons for Lower Wind Energy 1. Frequent grid fai lure at the peak wind velocity because of inadequate evacuation facil ity at Poolavadi. resulting in stoppage of WEG 's. 2. The wind speed and density of air vary from season to season and year to year, and the type of wind is not the same tlu·oughout the year. 3. The machines draw high reactive power consumption and because of th is, the machines were stopped during low wind velocity period as the State Electricity Board is charging us for the reactive power consumption drawn from the grid. Present Scenario Though the concept of wind energy is a decade old m India, it is yet to assume an organised growth. The availability of spare parts is still far from satisfactory, as these have to be imported from abroad. l-Ienee indigenous technology has to be developed in this area on priority basis. 6 ; I