Wind power

[Mojo-jojo]

[h=1]Alternative energy: In Jhimpir lies the future of wind farming[/h] By Waqas Naeem
Published: December 24, 2012

Zorlus wind farm spread over 1,148 acres in Jhimpir. The Turkey-based company expects to add 56.4MW to the national grid by February 2013 with its 33 turbines. PHOTO: EXPRESS

ISLAMABAD: Driving from Karachi to Nooriabad, it is hard not to notice a constant feature. To the left of the Super Highway, power transmission lines sag between evenly spaced towers along the road for several kilometres before curving away toward the distant northern skyline.
This is Pakistans national power grid. And soon it may carry a significant load from an alternative, clean, green and a free source: Wind.
By February 2013, two wind power projects in Jhimpir a town in Sindhs Thatta district are expected to inject around 106 megawatts (MW) into the countrys electricity transmission system.
Jhimpir falls in the Gharo-Keti Bandar Wind Corridor, which has a potential to generate up to 50,000MW of electricity, according to the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB). The organisation has already racked up 12 wind power projects there.
Land of wind turbines
From the Nooriabad Industrial Area, a 25-kilometre dirt track leads southeast to the Zorlu Energy Pakistans wind turbine farm in Jhimpir. The sun hangs low over the monotonous landscape: A vast stretch of uncultivated land dotted with bushes and trees. Then, the wind turbines pop up: Huge three-blade structures mounted at the top of towers going up 85 metres into the sky.

The 1,148-acre wind turbine farm by Zorlu, a subsidiary of the Turkish firm Zorlu Enerji, started off with five turbines in 2009. A $36.8-million loan from Asian Development Bank (ADB) and credit from other banks helped it expand to 33 turbines.
Once it gets the remaining formal approvals from the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC), the $143-million project will be set to add 56.4MW to the system, says Mumtaz Hassan, the country manager of Zorlu Energy Pakistan. We are ready and are targeting the end of January [2013] to start electricity supply, he said.
Wind power projects are pricey. A 50MW farm costs around $135 million. The land sublease rates have gone up since the Sindh government took over land allocation from the AEDB in April.
Thats not all
In Jhimpir, another wind energy project, by the Fauji Fertiliser Company Energy Limited (FFCEL), will start contributing 49.5MW to the national grid from December 24.
Twelve independent power producers have also been given lands and another 12 are being considered, says Naeem Memon, the AEDB deputy director. Letters of interest have been issued to 47 companies to set up wind power projects between 5MW and 350MW capacity.
Wind is good
The Gharo-Keti Bandar Wind Corridor stretches around 70 kilometres along the coast and 110 kilometres inland. Identified by the AEDB and Pakistan Meteorological Department in 2005, it holds promise with average wind speeds of around 7.3 metres per second (m/s).
Only the first 12 projects will get a wind-risk guarantee. If the wind speed is lower than 7.3 m/s, the Pakistani government will pay the difference of energy not produced, Memon said. The guarantee will not be offered to the future projects because AEDB has sufficient wind forecast data now, he said.
Not a substitute
Though it all sounds great, there are some caveats. Wind power is not a substitute, it is a secondary source, Zorlus site manager Murat Aziz puts it frankly. If you invest without increasing capacity of other sources of electricity, the system will collapse when the wind stops.
Experts suggest wind power should not comprise more than 10 per cent of the total power capacity installed. The 1,000MW expected from Jhimpir would only be around 3 per cent of Pakistans total power capacity of 21,000MW.
Also, linking two dozen power plants from the same place may result in power transmission issues. A more-supply-than-demand situation may trip the grid. But for now, Hassan and Memon are confident that maximum wind power generation can be achieved in Jhimpir during summers when the power demands are at the peak.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 24[SUP]th[/SUP], 2012.

 

[Mojo-jojo]

Wind power


THE start of the wind power project in the Jhimpir area of coastal Sindh is a welcome development. The Fauji Fertiliser Company has started a 50MW project, inaugurated by President Asif Ali Zardari on Christmas Eve in Karachi. This is the largest wind power project in Pakistan, and although the amount of electricity it would be able to generate sounds meagre in comparison to the shortfalls we have become accustomed to, the project is important mainly as a demonstration of the viability of wind power in the country. However, the project should be seen primarily as a ground-breaking event, rather than a solution to energy problems. With the 50MW of electricity that it will feed into the national grid, at a feed-in tariff of Rs12.61, the project represents the end of a long road down which we began to travel back in 2008.

It was back then that a Turkish firm by the name of Zorlu Energy had made the first move to invest in wind power in the Gharo-Keti Bunder corridor. The project suffered from many delays. There were snags and problems in the allocation of the land. There were problems in the wind data which was not considered bankable. There were difficulties in determining the wind tariff. All of these delayed implementation, even though a small 6MW wind turbine was installed. Zorlu was the pioneer in the field, and took the first steps down the road on which the FFC has travelled towards establishing the 50MW project. Inauguration of the FFC’s project, therefore, is a demonstration that these snags and difficulties have been successfully overcome. If the FFC can bank a $130m project, get a commercially viable tariff
established for wind power, and acquire possession over the land for the project, then very few obstacles remain for others to follow suit.
There is little doubt that the government, in its characteristic jubilation, is overstating the power generation potential of the Gharo-Keti Bunder wind corridor. Nobody is willing to seriously believe that 50,000MW of electricity can be produced by the winds that blow through this corridor. But the potential for wind power generation is indeed substantial and needs to be tapped. The best way to tap this potential is to create an enabling environment for private investors; and this project may well have shown the way. Pakistan needs to urgently diversify its power-generation mix, and our growing dependence on furnace oil must be halted. The start of a wind power project in coastal Sindh offers us a ray of hope that progress on this important national priority is possible.

http://dawn.com/2012/12/26/wind-power/