For Tamil Nadu, poor rain = power cuts

Power demand has gone up to nearly 12,000 megawatt from 10,500 mw-11,000 mw at the end of last month. As against demand, power availability hovers around 9000 mw to 9500 mw, creating a huge deficit. Besides, contribution from the wind power is negligible.

As a result of maintenance and snags in the central generating stations, the Vallur and Neyveli thermal power stations (TPS) and Kaiga and MAPS atomic power stations, the state has lost nearly 952 mw. Two 600 units of the stage II North Chennai TPS and one 220 unit of Tuticorin TPS are under repair, while a 330-mw private power plant in Pillaiperumalnallur has been shut down for want of naptha mw. “In all, the state has lost 2700 mw generating capacity due to snags and maintenance,” the official said.

A senior Tangedo official said that the power situation in the state would improve once the southern grid is integrated with the national grid as this would pave way for import of power. Tangedco proposes to purchase 2,122 megawatt (MW) from eight companies for 15 years.

Besides, the official pointed out that the state would add 2500 mw to the grid through commissioning of various central power projects in Vallur, NTPL thermal power plant in Tu­t­i­corin, NLC stage II and Kudankulam atomic power sta

tion.

Madurai: Though the near 10-hour power outages in the last 10 days have put people in southern districts in hardship, Tangedco officials say it is only a temporary phenomenon and the situation will turn normal after a fortnight.

“The prolonged hours of power cut will continue for another 15 days and not more than that. Now that the state government has allotted Rs 5 crore for the third plant in Thoothukudi thermal power station for renovation and modernisation, we expect the funds to reach us in a week after which the repair work will be rushed through,” says a Tangedco officer in Madurai.

The boiler in the 30-year-old plant at the station has got punctured thus contributing to the present power crisis. The 800 mw shortage from the north grid is also cited as one of the reasons.

Madurai district, according to the official, requires 150 mw daily but it suffers a shortage of 50 mw now. “We expect the situation to improve in the coming days,” he says.

Tangedco has resorted to a three-hour alternate power cut in the sense that for every three hours, the region will not have the luxury of electricity supply. But it is all unannounced. And, that adds to the woes of the consumers.

The CPI (M) in its recent district committee meeting deplored the unannounced outage but the authorities here say the ball is not in their court. “It is decided by the Main Load Dispatch Centre in Chennai. And, we too are ignorant about the timing,” says an executive engineer.

However, what comes as a respite for the industrial estates is the ad hoc arrangement of six-hour alternate power cut made available to them.

V.S. Manimaran, president of Madurai District Tiny and Small Scale Industries Association, says, “The estates are deprived of electricity from 6 am to 12 noon and 6 pm to 9 pm only. This gives us some amount of relief to run production. In a meeting held with us two days ago, the officials have promised to get the crisis solved in 15 days. So, we prefer to wait till the deadline before holding protests.”

Chennai: With long hours of power cuts resurfacing in the state, students in the districts are worried that they may have to suffer darkness during the board exams this year too.

Saravanan, a class X student from Coimbatore, said that it was not the industrial sector that got hurt by the power outage, but students.

“We have electricity for less than 12 hours a day; industries can migrate to another state, but how can we move to a neighbouring state for our school education?” he pointed out.

A class XII student, Muthukumaran, from Madurai, urged the state’s school education department to award 10 more marks as grace marks for students in the districts who were affected by severe power shor

tage.

“Students in a city like Chennai have electricity 24 hours so they can study at their own pace, but we don’t have power for the most part of the day (over 10 hours); how can we study? The government should change the exam time from March to October as in the rainy season the state has no power shortage and it would easy for us to prepare for the board exam,” he said.

Sumathi, a teacher, too echoed the students’ view: without electricity the science students were not able to do their practicals.

“To do a science practical, one needs power, but where do we go for it in the districts? I think we can do away with science practiclas for the board exams this year,” she

said.

Karur: The erratic power supply has hit textile manufacturing industries and dyeing units in Karur hard. Over 300 export units which depend on ancillary units for executing their orders are now in a fix as they are unable to execute export orders on time due to erratic power supply, sources said.

“Export units bank on over 2,000 weaving and stitching units which do not have generators to execute the existing orders. We are already running behind schedule. We are now worst affected due to erratic power supply,” said an office-bearer of the Karur Exporters and Manufacturers Association. The erratic power supply has resulted in an increase in the cost of production. Small and medium industries are the worst affected. Export units are unable to extract work from ancillary units as the latter do not have generators. “Textile manufacturing industries with commitments are now struggling to fulfil these and are forced to airlift consignments due to delay in production,” he said.

Similarly, over 450 dyeing units in Karur also do not have generators and are affected badly. Though all the units are functioning, only 50 per cent of the works are now being undertaken due to erratic power supply. Manufacturing units have cut down their number of shi­fts from three to two, sources said. Meanwhile, the Karur Te­xtile Manufacturers and Ex­po­rters Association has requested Chief Minister J. Jaya­la­li­th­aa to take measures to re­st­o­re uninterrupted power supply on a war-footing in the larger in­t­e­rests of textile industry and export.

“We have now been fo­r­ced to a situation where we ca­n­not finish the already confir­med orders. If the trend continues, we will not get any new orders and workers will lose their jobs,” an office-bearer said.