Kerala State Electricity Board eyeing more wind power

The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) is again exploring the anticipation of tapping Kerala’s upwind vigor potential. The KSEB has secured support from the State Electricity Regulatory Commission to procure 300 megawatts (MW) of upwind powerfulness from wrong the State.

The powerfulness inferior is expected to interval tenders for the improvement of upwind powerfulness projects and proviso of powerfulness from them soon. The glitch is that Kerala has made scant advancement successful tapping upwind energy, though its star powerfulness capableness has grown exponentially successful caller years.

Kerala’s installed capableness successful upwind powerfulness stands astatine a meagre 71.52 MW, information with the Ministry of New Renewable Energy (MNRE) and the State government’s Economic Review show. This constitutes a specified 1.6% of the full powerfulness procreation capableness wrong the State. Given this scenario, the KSEB had scaled down the primitively projected tender size of 500 MW to 300 MW.

Also, the minimum bid capableness has been reset from the 10 MW prescribed by the Union Power Ministry to 2 MW. This ‘deviation,’ according to the commission’s bid allowing the procurement, is meant to promote wider participation, peculiarly from section and emerging developers, thereby enhancing contention and perchance starring to little tariffs.

It is besides expected to alteration the usage of tiny and fragmented onshore parcels for specified projects. The Renewable vigor and Net metering Regulation, 2020, and its necessitate organisation licensees specified the KSEB to met the renewable acquisition work (RPO). In doing so, penchant should beryllium fixed to powerfulness purchases from renewable vigor sources wrong Kerala.

An earlier survey by MNRE and Agency for New and Renewable Energy Research and Technology (ANERT) had pegged Kerala’s upwind vigor imaginable astatine astir 605 MW. But this is mostly theoretical erstwhile considering the geographical peculiarities of the State and the challenges posed by onshore ownership and terrain issues that marque proscription of windmill components difficult.