Tex Talk

The burden of wind energy generation

P S Sundar

The latest news from the Union Government that the textile industry’s investment in wind energy generation would not qualify for the Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF) is causing disturbances in the industry’s planning process. For, the mills were led to believe all these months that their investment was noble as it helped in the production of the much-needed non-conventional energy to keep the machinery running.

The textile industry which had taken the pains to invest a lot in this sphere, was led to believe that being a national cause, this investment would qualify for the TUF. But, now, the news has come in that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has rejected the inclusion of the wind energy investment for reasons it believes are genuine. It certainly appreciates the contribution of the industry for the generation of non-conventional energy, but it feels that any benefit to the industry in this regard should come from the ministry of non conventional energy resources. Including a wind generation equipment in the TUF would be tantamount to treating the same as a textile machinery. This could lead to more pressures for inclusion of similar other equipments in future. So, unless the TUF provisions are amended to accommodate such inclusions, there is little scope for the benefit being conferred on wind energy generation equipments. Another contention is that the TUF is a fund for modernisation of the textile manufacturing machinery. Investments on the generation of wind energy cannot be treated as modernisation process for the industry. But, the industry’s approach is also genuine. Considering that power accounts for a sizeable cost of production, the textile industry has been contending that the units consumed from wind energy helps in cost reduction and improvement of cost effectiveness. Technology upgradation is a costly exercise for the textile industry and that’s why the TUF itself has been floated to help the industry modernise without pinching its purse. The objective is to make the industry cost effective in the global arena particularly in the post-WTO era. So, a logical extension of this objective should be to accommodate all the connected expenses which help to improve the cost effectiveness and that’s where the investment for the generation of wind energy has its own weight.

So, whether the wind energy generation is a direct textile machinery specific or not is a question that has to be examined in the context of the purpose for which it is engaged in the textile industry to which the TUF is applicable. In the wind blowing belts of Tamil Nadu, this columnist had seen several windmills put up by the textile units on the encouragement of the government and now, the units are worried that the investment is becoming a white elephant. Textile millowners had told this columnist in Palladam belt of Tamil Nadu that crores of rupees investment had gone in for the wind energy generation. The total installed capacity in Tamil Nadu alone is around 2040 MW. For that matter, India is hailed as the world’s fourth largest wind energy generating country. Nearly 100 centres have been identified for the generation of wind energy. Quite a lot of them are in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Gujarat. In most of these states, the textile industry has put up units believing that concessional funding under the TUF will be given. Also, considering that the wind mills do not pollute the atmosphere nor do they deplete the available resources, every effort should be taken to encourage the installation of such equipments by all the industries, textile included.

But, everything is not rosy in the wind energy generation and transmission network. Millowners complain that they are unable to harness the entire energy from the high wind facility because of the inadequate capacity in transmission lines. There are complaints that sufficient feeder lines and sub-stations are not available. In some cases, because of this, the very generation of the wind energy had to be stopped. In other cases, the generated energy was lost in transmission leading to difficulties. The millowners regret that the state electricity boards had not coped up with necessary grids to receive the generated wind power although they had been issuing No Objection Certificates. Another complaint is that the electricity boards did not examine if they had the necessary facilities to absorb the generated power when they sanctioned. The Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Dr Monteck Singh Ahluwalia, has also been stressing that the States had enormous authority to frame their own power policy.