a small event in tamilnadu highlights how lacklasadical the policy/rules/monitoring/error corrections can be when it comes to wind power generation.

tamilnadu with its wind farm base is #1 in india and probably among top 15 in the world in terms of wind power generation. but with policies of india skewed towards coal and hydel dams (in which the contractors and big corporations rake in the moolah), wind has been a power cousin.

tneb (tamilnadu electricity board), it seems, had a downfall of 1000mw in demand and as such tneb conveniently shut off its wind power generation. shutting down a coal power plant might not be easy. agreed. but instead of shutting down wind power, tneb should have pro-actively forecast supply/demand scenario and made sure hydel and coal pumping stations can be slowed down gradually allowing wind to take priority based on demand/supply equations.

and even better, wind power can be exclusively fed onto companies that do not require massive power to run every second. for instance software companies, residential homes in cool places, recreation areas, etc thereby putting wind power in a continuous working mode. alternatively coal can be toned down and wind taken over during low demand periods. another scenario will be to put in place agreements with power hungry (and of course power wasteful) states like maharastra and supply them the power.

wind power is cleaner and greener when compared to dirty coal and dangerous nuclear power. all efforts should be taken to maintain full usage of the wind power.

true development means working with true and clean technology and also respecting that technology and putting it to optimum use.

(wind farms in tamilnadu. with abundant wind from western ghats passages, tamilnadu ranks #1 in india and among the top in the world. more scientific and green policies to tap wind power needs to be encouraged and dependence on dirty coal power plants need to be cut down)