CHENNAI: Frequent power cuts across the state including in Chennai are affecting residents already wilting under rising temperatures. While the districts have been suffering for the past few weeks, some parts of Chennai have been affected since the last few days. And, officials say Tamil Nadu may suffer a major coal shortage soon if supply remains below its daily requirements.
Residents say outages in summers make things worse. “There have been frequent power cuts in our locality for the past few days. It was bad on Thursday night when power went off for around one hour,” said Anusuya R of Adyar.
M Rajendran of Mudichur said power cuts were robbing him of a good night sleep.
On Wednesday night, several districts including Cuddalore, Kanyakumari, Theni, Tiruvannamalai, Tirupathur, Karur, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Chengalpet experienced power cuts. Angry residents at Manavalan Nagar in Tiruvallur went on a rampage attacking a lineman leaving him injured.
Electricity minister Senthil Balaji blamed the situation on a sudden drop of about 750MW of power from the central grid to southern states. Tangedco’s productivity has increased and steps are being taken to purchase power from private producers, he said.
An official said TN’s average daily power demand is around 15,500MW. On Friday, the state’s thermal plants generated 3,380MW against a capacity of 4,320MW. Of the five coal-based thermal plants, power generation was stopped in two Tuticorin units due to technical issues. The central stations contributed 4,607MW against the total of 7,149MW. Solar generation on Thursday was 3038 MW, while wind power season, now generating 42MW, will begin in May-June.
On Friday, Tangedco chief engineers were instructed to direct all officials at generating stations concerned to be available from 6pm to midnight daily and strive to maintain full/maximum load till further instruction. “We undertook preventive maintenance, which we normally do ahead of the summer to prevent outages,”.an TNEB official said. On coal shortage, he said, “There is no shortage as of now, as we have some stock. But if the supply continues to decline, we may face shortage in another 4-5 days.” The state’s coal requirement is 72,000 tonnes a day while the supply is 50,000 tonnes, officials said. On Monday, the electricity minister said a tender to import 4.8lakh tonnes of coal would be finalised. Tangedco has also floated a tender to transport around 2.6lakh tonnes of coal from Odisha.
K Vishnu Mohan Rao, senior researcher of Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group, said the way forward is to advocate for rooftop solar and decentralised generation by consumers who can have energy independence and security for themselves.
