Inter State sale of Wind Energy, the solution to optimization of transmission and distribution losses, says Deepak Kochhar

Today India has around 27 GW cumulative wind installations in India which is less than half the target assigned for capacity installation by 2022.

Till now windy states in western and southern part of India did a commendable job by harnessing 27 GW wind energy by supporting through state level policy with central help.

In order to achieve long term goal of energy security all states now need to contribute in harnessing renewable energy. Though most of the states can harness solar energy in their respective states however wind energy potential is available largely in 6 to 7 western and southern states.

All states can participate towards national energy security by buying wind energy and solar energy as per the RPO obligation set by The Electricity Act, Centre and various regulators.

An effective way to achieve this objective can be by forming a Central Wind Power Trading Company (Central Wind PTC) who can do inter- state trading of wind energy. However one question may arise about transmission and distribution losses since transporting wind energy from south and west to north and east part of India can lead to higher T & D losses.

The Central Wind PTC can be innovative to curb transmission and distribution losses. For example instead of transmitting entire green energy from south to north and west to east, it can buy green energy in west and south and sell it as conventional power in nearby areas and buy conventional power in east and north equal to the green energy bought in south and west and sell it as green energy to north and eastern states. Annual review and tariff setting by CERC for Central Wind PTC distributed power will help to make it successful. When entire nation contribute for energy security nobody will feel the pinch and in medium to long term entire nation will reap the benefit.

“Development of a reliable framework for inter- state trading of wind energy through a Central Wind PTC can lead to additional capacity addition and achieving the desired energy mix for the nation”, says Mr. Deepak Kochhar, Founder & CEO, NuPower Renewables.