Odanthurai: The windmills of change came to Tamil Nadu’s Odanthurai Panchayat 17 years ago. The success story soon began to be hailed as a renewable energy role model for the nation. The fame reached New Delhi’s Qutub Minar this year, when Odanthurai’s name was beamed during the light show as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations.
But the panchayat in Odanthurai, which built roads, homes, and borewells in the eight villages under it, is now struggling to live up to its celebrity status as a windmill pioneer. Unpaid bills have piled up.
Panchayat president G Thangavel said that so far, they have not made many financial gains from the windmill project.
“The village is paying Rs 28 lakh annually as electricity bill, but the revenue we get from the windmill is less. We are paying over Rs 8 per unit for the grid power, while TANGEDCO is buying our windmills’ power at just Rs 2.75 per unit,” said Thangavel, referring to the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation.
Odanthurai also has to pay monthly maintenance costs to Suzlon Global Services Limited, a renewable energy manufacturing company, under an agreement.
Road to fame
The windmill wasn’t the first change to sweep Odanthurai.
Its road to renewables fame came after many years of hard toil by the panchayat. It used to be like any other roadless, waterless Indian village.
Vadivelu, a ward member and resident of Odanthurai’s Vinobaji Nagar, recalls that his village was lined with humble roadside dwellings some 25 years ago. His lime-coloured, green-bordered home features a logo depicting former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa with the programme’s name – ‘Solar Powered Green House Scheme (SPGHS)’ – inscribed on it.
Until 1996, the eight villages under Odanthurai Panchayat struggled for basic amenities like housing, water, electricity, and roads. “We used to live in huts until about 1998. Then a government scheme built 138 houses, and, as the population increased, another 108 houses were built in 2007,” he says.
In the past three decades, the gram panchayat that governs these villages – Odanthurai, Alamarathur, Agasthiya Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, Kallar Pudur, T.A.S Nagar, Umapalayam, and Vinobaji Nagar – turned things around for the better. After its election in 1996, it implemented government schemes and built borewells, water filtering stations, and pucca homes for residents.
Eventually, the panchayat got proper roads. Then, it pursued the Rajiv Gandhi National Rural Drinking Water Mission and became the first village panchayat in India to implement the scheme in September 2000. It also set up infrastructure to receive water from the nearby Bhavani River. By 2000, Odanthurai became a panchayat without any huts, and finally, in 2006, set up its own windmill to generate power.
It is this out-of-the-box approach that earned Odanthurai the ‘model village’ title and a place at the Mera Gaon, Meri Dharohar show at Delhi’s Qutub Minar. It celebrates 21 remarkable Indian villages, and Odanthurai is one of them.
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Story of Odanthurai’s windmill
As Odanthurai improved, its power consumption increased significantly. Its monthly electricity bills surged from Rs 2000 in 1996 to Rs 70,000 by 2000. Then-panchayat president Shanmugam and his council consulted with the district administration to find ways to reduce power expenses.
“In a district officials’ meeting, they told us that if the electricity bill was a burden, then we should try the non-currency energy scheme,” recalls Shanmugam. The panchayat officials promptly initiated the task of procuring a biomass gasifier system from Gujarat. This 9-kilowatt system powered the drinking water pump with 70 per cent less electricity.
“At that time, the cost of waste wood used to be Rs 0.6 per kg, which increased to Rs 3.50 per kg. It did not make sense as grid power was only Rs 1.75 per unit,” says Shanmugam. This made Odanthurai revert to the power grid for all its needs. Eventually, by 2001, Shanmugam installed solar panels in two villages to power street lights, reducing the electricity bill by Rs 5,000.
But there was scope for more change. Shanmugam and fellow council members kept brainstorming ideas for alternative renewables before finally settling on windmills. After all, there was no shortage of private companies investing in them.
Panchayat members once again headed to the district administration, which was more than willing to support them.
The cost of a 350-kilowatt windmill was Rs 1.55 crore, and the Odanthurai Panchayat had saved up Rs 40 lakh for the purpose. The windmill, according to the former panchayat leader, could produce around 6.75 lakh units of electricity annually.
“We approached a private bank, which found our idea innovative and supported us by releasing the loan,” says Shanmugam.
The proactive panchayat had already identified a wind farm located about 140 km away, in Myvadi village of Tiruppurr district. Then, after consulting with numerous private windmill companies, it found the perfect partner in Suzlon Global Services Limited. The company installed the windmill on the one-acre plot in Myvadi. For the first year, Suzlon took care of the maintenance for free; from the following year, the village started paying the maintenance fee as per agreement.
The panchayat only required 4.5 lakh units at the time, which meant that the remaining 2 lakh units could be sold to the government to create additional revenue for Odanthurai, recalls Shanmugam. “It could be used to repay the loan or for any other needs of the panchayat.”
The villages did not get direct electricity from the high-tension wind farm as they only required low-tension power. However, they could sell it to TANGEDCO to make additional income for their development initiatives. According to Thangavel, in 2006, the panchayat signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with TANGEDCO at a fixed cost of Rs. 2.75 per unit, valid until 2026. The tariff was fixed by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) and was the same for all independent power producers (IPPs).
By 2018, say Thangavel and Shanmugam, the panchayat used its general fund with about Rs 55 lakh and the revenue from TANGEDCO to pay back the bank loan in full, which, with accumulated interest, came up to Rs 1.6 crore.
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Facing hurdles
The Government of India Panchayati Raj report released in 2021 – Concept Note: Making Panchayats ‘Atma Nirbhar’ through Renewable Energy – noted that Suzlon Global Services Limited had agreed to operate and manage Odanthurai’s windmill at a cost of Rs 2,89,870 per year. The rates mentioned above were valid for one year (2006) and were subject to escalation at 5 per cent per annum.
The annual maintenance cost incurred by Suzlon between April 2020 and March 2021 was Rs 74,3477. Then, in financial years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, the annual maintenance costs spiked to Rs 7,80,873 and 8,95,352, respectively.
According to Thangavel, TANGEDCO has yet to pay the panchayat Rs 1,36,9430, which means the latter is now struggling to pay Suzlon. “As soon as we get the payment from the electricity department and clearance from the district collector, payment will be made to Suzlon,” he says assuredly.
ThePrint attempted to contact Suzlon through phone calls and emails. The article will be updated as soon as a response is received.
This disparity in buying and selling prices has greatly affected the panchayat, he adds. “At present, power is brought from us at Rs 2.75 per unit, but we pay over Rs 8 per unit. We are at a loss of close to Rs 5 per unit. Additionally the maintenance that we pay for Suzlon is also increasing yearly while our revenue remains stagnant. If the government buys at the same rate as it sells to us, then our windmill income will cover our electricity bills,” he says.
Thangavel has submitted numerous appeals to both the central and state governments in the past three years, requesting them to raise the per-unit purchase price offered by TANGEDCO.
If the government took care of maintenance costs, it would help the panchayat save money, he says.
The 2021 Panchayati Raj report also recommended that “the rate fixed by the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation per unit may be increased from Rs 2.70 to Rs 3.70 per unit (or) it can be exchanged with current electricity consumption.”
Residents have more demands
The panchayat’s residents have a few more demands, which they say need “immediate attention.” The beams of the 300-square-foot homes built over 20 years prior have now developed cracks. Residences built in 2007, however, are still intact, and line the first two lanes of the Odanthurai village. But as one heads deeper inside, they are greeted with narrow lanes, broken roads and open sewage systems.
“During rains, water starts seeping into our homes, and we constantly fear for our safety,” says R Priya, a resident of Odanthurai.
Seventy-year-old resident N Balan points out more problems. “Street lights need to be reinstalled, roads have to be fixed, several houses are in a state of depletion, sewage needs to be fixed…”
Efforts are on to address these problems, says Thangavel. “We are just waiting for final approvals from the district administration,” he assures.
As for the windmill, it will complete 20 years in 2026, and in the next three years, it is expected to bring the panchayat a revenue of Rs 6,82,160 per annum. If the government thinks the windmill is in good condition, then it might run for an additional five years.
Thangavel says the panchayat will now try to install solar panels to power four to five 70-horsepower motors that will bring water from the Bhavani River. “If this proposal is accepted, then the panchayat’s bimonthly electricity bill will be reduced to Rs 3 lakh as opposed to the current Rs 5 lakh,” Thangavel adds.
Shanmugam attributes the success of the panchayat to corruption-free work, optimal use of government schemes and focus on people’s welfare. His exemplary work has earned him accolades from former presidents APJ Abdul Kalam and Ram Nath Kovind, and ex-chief ministers M Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa. “Generally, we see rural-to-urban migration, but in Odanthurai, we see the opposite trend. The panchayat’s population has increased to 10,000 this year compared to 1,800 in 1996, as those who left have returned,” says Shanmugam.
Seventeen years after the installation of its first windmill, Odanthurai remains a “sample panchayat” for the country. The villagers want to meet 50 per cent of their energy needs through renewable sources, as envisioned by PM Modi at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in 2021.
Shanmugam is proud, but says that India should not rest on Odanthurai’s laurels. “It is not enough to have one Odanthurai. If 12,628 villages in Tamil Nadu and over 2 lakh villages in the country can be developed like Odanturai, only then can we expect progress.”
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)