Power Purchase Only For Peak Hours To Avoid Outages: Nirmal Kumar

Chennai: Responding to the charges of former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and former minister V. Senthil Balaji on purchasing electricity at a high price of Rs. 35 per unit, Electricity Minister C.T.R. Nirmal Kumar on Tuesday said it is a temporary measure to avoid power outages for two to three hours as in neighbouring States.

The minister denied that the purchase of power at Rs. 35 per unit would lead to a loss of Rs. 1 lakh crore and said an additional expenditure of Rs. 5 crore would be incurred since the purchase of 1,500 MW is only during the peak hours. The government would go for long term power purchase for a lesser amount in future, he added.

The arrangement became necessary since Tamil Nadu did not get the 1,850 MW power from the NLC and the generation of wind power fell from 3,500 MW to 500 MW while the consumption went up due to the high temperature witnessed in Oct. due to El Nino conditions, he said. The present agreement was needed since the DMK government did not sign any long-term agreement.

In a statement here, Nirmal Kumar said the previous DMK government had purchased additional solar power and this was dropped since it resulted in a loss of Rs. 1,000 crore. The new applications for solar energy could be accepted only after forming a sufficient battery energy storage system. The TVK had stopped the irregularities that occurred during the DMK government which had given contracts to companies without letter pads.

Nirmal Kumar said the TVK government had paid Rs. 12,000 crore with interest since the Rs. 6,000 crore Uppur project did not function and is carrying out measures to open it. The government had increased the power production of the State by 75 per cent.

Earlier, Senthil Balaji who met the media on Tuesday morning alleged that the TVK government had reduced power production and is purchasing electricity at a high cost of Rs. 35 per unit. He alleged that the government is demanding Rs. 15 lakh to install a solar plant.

He said the power consumption went up every year during the DMK government from 16,000 MW to 20,830 MW in five years but the government supplied power without interruption.

He said Nirmal Kumar had condemned the buying of current at the rate of Rs. 20 per unit in a social media post during DMK rule and now the TVK government had signed an agreement for Rs. 35 per unit. He added that tenders would be issued in the months of Nov. and Dec. to face the high power demand during the summer months.

The DMK government increased the State government’s own power production from 22.000 MW during the AIADMK government to 29,000 MW, he said, adding the own power production in the TVK regime is only 34 per cent. Reducing own power production and buying it at a price of Rs. 35 per unit would ruin the financial position of the electricity department, Senthil Balaji said.

Former Chief Minister Palaniswami issued a statement condemning the purchase of current at Rs. 35 per unit and this is due to the lack of administration skills, adding there were doubts if the government is trying to indulge in corruption. He said former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa started many power production schemes from 2011 and turned Tamil Nadu into a State without power outages. The TVK government did not take action to increase the power production and pushed the State into darkness, he said. The AIADMK leader said the government is trying to push the electricity board into several lakh crores of debt and moving towards privatisation.