OREANDA-NEWS. May 16, 2011. Tata Power, India’s largest integrated private power utility, as part of its sustainability initiative is committed to the addition of “clean and renewable energy” generation capacity to its portfolio. The company endeavours to substantially enhance its green energy generation through various renewable opportunities including a substantial presence in wind power.

Tata Power today is one of the leading private wind generation companies with an installed capacity of 273 MW and plants spread across four states, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the leading states in promoting wind power generation in India. In the state of Maharashtra, the company’s wind farms are located in Visapur and Sadawaghapur in Satara District; Khandke and Supa in Ahmednagar district, and Bramanvel in Dhulia district.

The company had placed an order for 150 MW additional wind capacity to be set up in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, of which 45 MW was commissioned in April 2011 and the balance is expected to be commissioned till December 2011.

The collective generation by the wind farms was 349 MUs during FY2010-11 as against 320 MUs in FY2009-10.

Wind innovations:

The company is increasingly focusing on the renewable sources of power generation as part of its sustainable development initiatives. It is exploring opportunities of wind generation wherever possible and also looking for innovation in wind power generation with projects like that of micro-wind power projects that can light up several homes which currently don’t have access to electricity under distributed generation.

Micro-wind: During FY2010-11, the company installed two micro horizontal axis wind turbines (2 to 5 kW). It is also in the process of installing two vertical axis turbines in FY2011-12 (5 and 12 kW in capacity respectively)

Solar/wind hybrid: As a green initiative, Tata Power has installed a hybrid system at its Mankhurd receiving station. The 2.82 KW solar/wind hybrid turbine at Mankhurd substation is a demonstration project commissioned to meet the lighting requirements of the control room. The hybrid unit contains two complete generating plants, a PV solar cell plant and a wind-turbine system. It supplies power for control room lighting.