Tamil Nadu power utilities have sought the advancing of the refuelling activity at Unit-I of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP).
Rajesh Lakhoni, Chairman and Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) and R. Manivannan, Managing Director Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation Limited (Tantransco) have written to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), which also runs the KKNPP, on this issue.
The refuelling activity of KKNPP Unit-1 has been scheduled from December 16, 2023 to January 28, 2024 for 75 days, they noted in the letter addressed to Bhuwan Chandra Pathak, Chairman and Managing Director of NPCIL. Since there is a high demand period from the end of January to February 2024, they have requested the advancement of the refueling, as otherwise, Unit-1 may be not be available for power generation at the time.
Mr. Lakhoni and Mr. Manivannan, in their letter, asked for refuelling activity to be carried out from November 2023 to January 2024, so that power generation could be made available from the second fortnight of January 2024.
Tamil Nadu has a power allocation share of 1,150 MW out of the total capacity of 2,000 MW of Units I and II of KKNPP. It has also sought 100% allocation of power from Units III and IV (1,000 MW each). The commissioning of Unit III is expected to take place by May 2025, and that of Unit IV by December 2025.
Tamil Nadu, being an industrialised and urbanised State, has the fourth-highest peak energy demand in the country. It has the highest energy consumption among the southern States.
The State saw an all time high peak demand of 19,387 MW on April 20 this year. On the same day the all-time high daily consumption of 423.785 million units was hit.
Tamil Nadu has been allocated 7,170 MW as share of its power from Central Generating Stations. However, as per the policy note of State’s Energy Department for 2023-24, at a time, the peak availability is only 5,900 MW.
