Wind power

CSTEP organised a stakeholder consultation workshop on the wind energy sector at the request of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) recently. The main objectives of this workshop were to discuss the results of the national wind potential reassessment study conducted by CSTEP, use geo-spatial analysis to locate high potential wind zones for further development, and discuss mechanisms to ease the problems currently plaguing the sector, such as inadequate site allotments, inefficient power purchase agreements, pricing of renewable energy etc.

Due to stochastic nature of wind distribution, wind power output comes with unscheduled changes called ramp events. In this paper, a semi-analytical approach is considered to analyze the distribution of ramp events. A simple empirical equation is derived based on the probability of wind ramp events considering the stochastic nature of wind power distribution for the Indian state of Karnataka.

This paper aims to inform the tariff setting process for wind resource in Karnataka, so that investments in wind infrastructure can be incentivized taking into consideration resource variations. This work presents a range of levelized tariffs for the on-shore wind potential of the state. The range is a result of the variation in capacity utilization factors estimated for various classes of Wind Power Density (WPD) in the state, for waste and scrub forest land categories, at 80 m and 100 m hub heights.

Till recently, the on-shore wind power potential in India was officially estimated to be 49 GW, out of which 17 GW forms part of the country’s mainstream energy mix. However, recent studies have indicated this potential to be underestimated. A few studies have estimated wind potential in India to be over 2000 GW and the official wind resource potential was recently revised to 102 GW by the Center for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET), at 80 m hub height.