India has the world’s fifth largest wind power installed capacity, at 17000 MW. The state of TN alone has a 7 GW of installed capacity.
Anyone reading these numbers would say, “Wow”. But the opinion is rather divided whether the wind power sector has really provided all the benefits that it actually could.
The key problem lies in two aspects
1. Wind power generation is highly volatile, the amount of energy generated could swing between a high and low within seconds (solar PV or CSP, even though they have lower output of energy per MW when compared to wind power), fare much better when it comes to stability of electricity generation
2. Most of the wind energy generated in India (especially TN) is during the Jun – Sep period, which is when there is enough power supplied by other renewable energy sources such as hydro, thus sometimes resulting in an oversupply of power, which gets monetized at low (or no) values – in fact, this lack of monetizability of wind from the wind farms has been a key cause for concern among many TNEB officials.
Now, the core reasons for 1 & 2 are beyond anyone’s control – essentially, wind will blow only when it, well, blows. There is really little we can do about that. Which then raises the question of how well the electricity generated can be utilized such that it provides maximizes the benefit to the entire ecosystem – wind farm developers, wind power consumers, state utilities etc.
I feel one of the tools that could be used to maximize wind power potential is the Smart Grid. I would like to use this forum to get the opinions of experts and other industry professionals in this regard.
I have provided some useful links that are relevant in this context:
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