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The 63-metre high wind mill dwarfs the other units around it as its blades swish around in the gentle wind at Supersales' wind farm. Soon, more such tall towers are set to replace the smaller units as the company ‘repowers' its wind farm.
The location is the Coimbatore-based company's wind farm at Kammalapatti, about 50 km from Coimbatore, where a group of journalists were on a tour, organised by the Gamesa Wind Turbines Pvt Ltd which supplies the wind energy generators.
Supersales India Pvt Ltd, a sister concern of LMW, has a 9.45 MW wind farm set up in 1996 with 29 machines of about 300 kW each. With time and changes in the surrounding environment, the output of these units had dropped and the company is replacing its machines.
Old wind farms are expanding capacities with new machines of advanced technology and higher capacity and — repowering the term used in the industry — is seen as an emerging market by wind generator manufacturers.
According to Mr N. Sudhakar, Senior Engineer, Supersales, the company has completed the first phase of repowering last March when it replaced 10 machines totalling about 3.5 MW, with four 850 kW machines totalling 3.4 MW supplied by Gamesa. Each new machines costs about Rs 5 crore. Supersales, which plans to replace all the units in the 275-acre wind farm, is in talks with other suppliers also.
The company has five wind farms totalling about 25 MW and LMW has about 26 MW of wind generation capacity. Both are expected to add about 4-6 MW, he said.
Local conditions
On the need for repowering, Mr Sudhakar said local conditions had changed particularly with increasing coconut plantations impeding the wind flow and affecting power generation. The initial Plant Load Factors, the ratio of the actual power generated to potential capacity, of about 18 per cent possible with the 30-metre machines had dropped to about 8-9 per cent, impacting the quantity of electricity generated. With the new taller machines, well above the plantation heights, even if the total capacity is the same at about 9.5 MW, power output is expected to increase.
According to Gamesa officials, the company estimates a PLF of about 24-26 per cent with an electricity generation of about 19-21 lakh units a year. It has supplied G58-850 model machines with a blade diameter of 58 meters which can generate power even at low wind speeds.
Mr Ramesh Kymal, Managing Director, Gamesa, an Indian subsidiary of Gamesa of Spain, says about a third of the wind energy generators in Tamil Nadu could be replaced with new machines to triple the capacity. Gamesa is among the earliest to venture into this segment with two projects for replacing old machines. It is in talks with other wind energy generators.
It is also supplying three new machines of 850 kW for Fenner and is in discussions with other wind energy generators.
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