Among southern states, Karnataka lead with 1,092 million units, followed by Telangana (594.09MU) and Tamil Nadu (514.30MU). Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were able to harvest wind power too during April
CHENNAI: Southern states generated more solar power during the lockdown, as a component of the total power supply in April. Despite demand being less during lockdown compared to normal times, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were able to use 2,655 million units of solar power compared to all other states, which generated 2,133 million units in the month. Among southern states, Karnataka lead with 1,092 million units, followed by Telangana (594.09MU) and Tamil Nadu (514.30MU). Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were able to harvest wind power too during April.
Compared to April, 2019, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu harvested more solar power this time around. In April 2019, Karnataka generated 791 million units and Tamil Nadu 400.11 million units of solar power. Consequently, evacuation of solar power by these two states increased by 28.53 per cent in Tamil Nadu and 38 per cent in Karnataka. In the case of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, solar power evacuation came down by 19 per cent and 2 per cent respectively.
“As the demand was very less due to the lockdown, solar power was available during daytime and we were able to evacuate more units this year. As our solar power capacity too has increased, more solar power was available,” said a senior Tangedco official.
Tamil Nadu’s solar power capacity increased by 666.65 MW in 2018-19 and as on January 2020, the total solar power capacity stood at 3788.51 MW. Wind power was also available, but infrequently in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Due to this, the total renewable power evacuation increased from 3676.63 million units of solar and wind power generation in April 2019 to 3686.44 million units. “In entire April, we had most of our thermal units on standby as power was available in Central units as well as from solar and wind sources. This helped us to stock more coal, which will be useful when the demand increases,” said the official.
Source: TNN
