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Sunday, Mar 30, 2008
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Power shortage hits textile mills

M. Soundariya Preetha

Future bleak: A spinning mill needs four units of power to produce 1 kg of yarn.

COIMBATORE: Textile mills in the State are likely to incur nearly Rs. 500 crore loss during March–May owing to the grim power situation.

This can be because of stopping production or incurring additional costs by running captive power plants.

The mills go without grid power for over 40 hours a week owing to the weekly power holiday and use of generator sets during the peak hours every day.

The units have only two options – either to stop production when grid power is not available or to go in for alternative sources such as generators or furnace oil plants.

Machines stopped

Most of the mills stop the machines when power is not available, says K.V. Srinivasan, chairman of the Southern India Mills’ Association.

They have to shell out Rs. 12 per unit if they use generator as against roughly Rs. 4.20 a unit for grid power. The spinning mills need four units of power to produce one kg of yarn (40s count).

The problem is severe for textile mills since these units usually run for seven days a week and plan manufacturing costs, wages, and production accordingly.

“What is worrying is that none of our proposals to mitigate the loss has been met,” he says. The association sought proportionate reduction in demand charges as grid consumption goes down by 25 per cent.

“There is no notification on that so far,” he says.

Nearly 200 MW of furnace oil plants are remaining idle and the mills are unable to use the same owing to the high fuel costs.

“I do not think the power situation will improve in the near future. But the Government can help us use the captive power plants by reimbursing the cost difference between that of grid power and running the captive plants,” he says.

Further, the shortage should be equally distributed across the State and the power holiday and peak hour consumption norms should be enforced strictly in all circles.

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