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Duliajan, Sept. 18: Oil India Limited (OIL) will sponsor a project to conduct a feasibility study on tapping wind energy in the Northeast.
A meeting is scheduled to be held between OIL authorities and officials from the Union ministry of renewable energy next month in Shillong to discuss the matter.
OIL director (HR) N.K. Bharali said lack of proper study to tap wind energy in the region was behind the company’s decision to sponsor a project to carry out a proper study in this regard.
“No data is available regarding the feasibility to tap wind energy in the region despite its potential to tap wind energy, and as such we have decided to sponsor a study in this regard,” he said. The company has already made a maiden venture in this regard by commissioning a 13.6MW wind turbine plant at Ludhureva in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district earlier this year.
The company has awarded Gamesa Wind Turbines Pvt. Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of Games — a world leader in design, manufacture, installation and maintenance of wind turbines — orders for commissioning 16 G-58 (850kW) machines equalling 13.6MW. The height of the tower is 65m and the diameter of the blade 58m.
The project was commissioned within 58 days from the date of issue of letter of intent on February 3, at an approximate investment of Rs 100 crore.
OIL’s wind farm was successfully connected to the power grid of Rajasthan Rajya Power Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Ltd at Amar Sagar.
Bharali said moves were also on to tap solar energy in the region and a proper study in this regard has to be carried out.
He, however, said the scope to tap solar energy in the region is much less that in the western region of the country since day hours are much less in the Northeast than the western states.
The company has, however, established a solar PV power plant at Jeypore in Dibrugarh district a few months back. The 100KW power grid interactive solar PV power plant was completed in-house by a team of OIL’s engineers and is about 15km from its field headquarters at Duliajan.
OIL chairman-cum-managing director S.K. Srivastava had said during the 53rd annual general meeting held here recently that the company plans to take up larger projects in the ensuing financial year in both wind and solar power.
The company, the country’s second largest oil and gas company, has achieved significant achievements this fiscal as its annual oil and gas production scaled new heights.
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