BENGALURU: Karnataka, reeling under a power crisis due to monsoon failure this year, had to shell out Rs 28 crore as fine in 2014 due to excessive wind power generation.
According to regulations, if a state pumps excess power into the central grid due to higher generation, it has to pay a fine. Tamil Nadu too paid a fine, around Rs 100 crore last year, due to power leakage in the grid.
P Ravikumar, additional chief secretary of energy, said, “The tax payers of the state had to bear the brunt of excessive power being generated and pumped into the central grid last year from wind turbines.”
The state’s load curve shows that wind power peaks around afternoon and late in the night whereas solar energy generation increases in the noon.
Additionally, wind power is maximum during the monsoons when demand dips. As a result, a lot of power generated by these sources is being wasted or pumped into the grid.
Prof D P Sen Gupta, visiting professor, School of Natural Sciences and Engineering, said, “The state’s ambitious project of generating more from non-conventional sources will go in vain if a storage system is not put in place. Pumped hydro-storage is the need of the hour as the state is planning to add around 7,800 MW from wind and solar generation by 2022.”
According to a report published by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in March 2015, Karnataka’s power deficit can be reduced by 69 per cent by 2022 if 1,000 MW of pumped hydro-storage is commissioned.
Prof Gupta, who carried out a study for Power System Operation Corporation Ltd, which analyses power consumption trends to predict the demand for power in the state, said there is a huge loss of power currently due to lack of storage ability and aggregate technical and commercial losses.
The demand for power in the state will continue to increase by the day.
According to current trends, around 36 per cent of power in the state is being consumed by the agriculture sector whereas residential and industrial demand is around 22 per cent each. However, both residential and industrial consumption is growing fast, adding to the power needs of the state.
Prof Gupta said, “By 2022 the state will have 3,700 MW from solar and 4,100 MW from wind generation, at the current rate of power addition from this sector. The area around Sharavathi and Kali rivers has a potential of adding 10,000 MW hour of energy for the state, and this needs to be tapped to make Karnataka a power surplus state.”