Windmills start pumping in much needed power in Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari

With the setting of the much awaited westerly winds, sweltering heat and power cuts have almost vanished to a great extent in Tirunelveli and the neighbouring Kanyakumari district.

The giant metallic turbine blades of nearly 3,000 windmills of Muppandal have started rotating to generate clean and green energy to effectively bridge the gap between demand and supply.

The twin towns of Tirunelveli and Palayamkottai were sizzling for the past two months as the temperature easily crossed 100 degree Fahrenheit everyday. Adding to this misery was the battle against the dengue outbreak.

To make things worse, the power cuts were clamped as part of the scheduled and unscheduled load-shedding agendas since power generation from the windmills of the famous Muppandal wind farm was almost zero.

After the southwest monsoon set over neighbouring Kerala, it brought in a cooling side-effect with the temperature coming down considerably and with an occasional mild drizzle covering the two districts.

Besides bringing down the temperature, the westerly wind, the raw energy for the 3,000-odd wind turbine generators in the famous Muppandal wind farm region, has helped in increasing the quantum of power being generated in this region.

Though the installed capacity of the wind turbines here is around 1,500 MW, the wind mills generated only 320 MW on June 1 as the wind velocity had not reached the optimum level.

With the wind gaining momentum everyday, power generation gradually rose to 675 MW on June 6 and 839 MW on Thursday (June 7) to obliterate the unscheduled power cuts.

“Though we expected this level of generation only after June 15, the quantum of power generation from the wind turbines of Muppandal during the first week of June itself is quite encouraging. If this situation continues for a few months, the climatic condition prevailing in the southern districts will reduce the air-conditioner usage, particularly during night even as the westerly winds increase the generation.

At the same time, we're expecting the State's share of power from the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project during June-end. So the present power crisis will gradually diminish,” said a senior official of Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation here.