CHENNAI: After a long hiatus, the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) will start making payment to the Indian Wind Power Association (IWPA) towards dues of about Rs 1200 crore for supply of electricity since August last year. After State-level deliberations failed to break the ice, the IWPA shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, drawing his attention to the non-payment of money, besides other things, by the State-owned TANGEDCO towards supply of wind energy since August 2010.K Kasthurirangaian, president, IWPA, told Express that TANGEDCO had agreed to start releasing payments from this week tentatively. Asked on the other issues that the wind power body took up with the PM, he said: “We have sought release of ` 1,775 crore to TANGEDCO from the Ministry of Renewable Energy to build better infrastructure to evacuate wind energy to the grid.”Out of the 5,887 MW installed wind capacity of the State, 1,000 MW was set up during 2010-11. “Now, 1,000 MW more would be added to the kitty during 2011-12.” However, Tamil Nadu, which is the top producer of wind power in India, does not have adequate evacuation infrastructure, which includes substations and overhead lines, to absorb the added capacity, besides the proposed additions into the grid, he pointed out.“The power board must build facilities to take additional wind production into the grid as soon as possible. We have sought PM’s intervention in releasing `1,775 crore to TANGEDCO. Using this fund, infrastructure should be built to utilize additional wind energy,” Kasthurirangaian said.
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