Low Loss Conductor for Renewable Segment

India is one among the largest producer of Renewable energy, Renewable capacity is 168.96 GW: Feb-23 out of total capacity of 412.21 GW (i.e., 41% of renewable/Total Capacity). Further as per government plan it is targeted to achieve 500 GW of installed capacity from non-fossil sources by the year 2030. To achieve 500 GW from RE-Segment there is need of enhancing installed capacity by Approx. 3 Times. With increase in energy demand the ohmic losses also play very important role to increase the line efficiency and deliver and utilize the maximum power generated from the non-fossil fuels such as wind/solar/hydro/biogas etc. These Paper is about use of Low Loss Conductor in Solar, Wind projects & the significant benefit created to Energy developer wrt to saving in losses and Return of Investment, Increase Line Capacity.

The power generated in the Wind farm, Solar farm or any other renewable source and then power is transmitted to 33kV/66kV Line. Hence the power transmitted at medium voltage level will have huge I²R losses associated with it. Also, the renewable energy developers need a vast network of these medium voltage level for interconnection between these Wind turbine Generators and connecting all of them to Pooling Substation which will eventually increase the I²R loss in every feeder (i.e., Overhead conductor lines. Since India is shifting towards renewable it brings out the stern competitive bidding among the various renewable energy developers and tends to lower the tariff of Renewable energy which enabled advancements and exploration of new technology for increasing the returns on the investment. Minimizing losses is of prime priority for which it became the necessity to brings down I²R losses and revenue generated from the energy sold can be increase. In order to reduce the power losses and with no major impact on structure loadings, Sterlite developed an innovative solution of new combination of aluminium conductor which has least loss compared to other conventional conductors by margin of up to 40% wrt ACSR Panther, 30% wrt AL.59 Panther, 10% wrt ECO Panther Conductor.

This paper is about technical evaluation done among the different HPC Conductors which preliminary used by Indian renewable developer’s. Especially in 33kV Lines in Wind Farm, Solar, Wind Solar Hybrid (WSH) Projects. For the general case study purpose 300 MW Wind farm catering around 30MW Feeder Rated Load, different type conductor is selected and effective losses in the line and capitalized cost benefit calculated w.r.t saving in Ohmic Losses is explained, along with Case Study of Karnataka region Wind Solar Project.