Chennai: Tamilnadu government is planning to add 25,000 MW of new capacity in the next 10 years to bring down power purchase cost and achieve self-sufficiency in meeting energy needs of the State.
Tamilnadu Generation & Distribution Corporation Ltd (TANGEDCO) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd (IREDA), a financing arm of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for funding renewable and energy efficiency projects, for advisory services and providing its technical expertise to former in developing renewable energy projects and fund raising.
Under the MoU, IREDA will extend its technical expertise to TANGEDCO for renewable energy project development, bid process management, and implementation support.
An official release said that in order to bring down the power purchase cost and to attain self-sufficiency in the power generation, TANGEDCO plans to add 25,000 MW generation capacity including 20,000 MW solar, 3,000 MW pumped hydro stations and 2,000 MW gas-based power stations in the next 10 years at an estimated cost of Rs 1.35 lakh crore.
The release said that with the existing thermal power stations have to be retired one by one due to crossing the useful plant life of 25 years, solar projects will produce energy at cheaper rates due to a substantial reduction in the capital cost and it would be prudent to invest more in the solar projects with adequate battery storage.