The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Call for equitable distribution of power shortage

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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Call for equitable distribution of power shortage

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Several participants at a public hearing organised by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) on Friday called for equitable distribution of power shortage.

Referring to 40 per cent power cut imposed on high tension industrial and commercial connections and 20 per cent energy cut on low-tension current transformer service connections, the participants, representing industry, complained against the differential treatment accorded to multinational companies, which had signed memoranda of understanding with the State government, and Chennai city.

Manikam Ramaswami, president of the State council of the Confederation of Indian Industry, suggested that if the authorities were required to provide uninterrupted power supply to the MNCs, they could buy high-cost power through open access and make it available to the companies.

K. Selvaraju, secretary general of the Southern India Mills’ Association, wondered why the power cut should be so severe on the industry when the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board was facing around 18 per cent shortfall in demand and only around 16 per cent shortage in energy.

K. Gopalakrishnan, general secretary, Tamil Nadu Small and Tiny Industries Association, said the power problem had contributed to the decline in collections of value-added tax in the last few months.

A representative of the South India Hotels and Restaurants Association wanted hotels exempted from the proposed scheme of the Board to tide over the problem of shortage.

S.V. Angappan of the Accounts and Executive Staff Union in the TNEB, said that under such extraordinary circumstances, there was nothing wrong in re-negotiating with independent power producers on the provisions of power purchase agreement so that the Board’s financial commitment would go down. Many industry representatives wanted the government to accept the CII’s proposal of purchasing power from idle captive plants that would use fuel at a highly discounted rate.

Responding to issues raised by the speakers during the six-hour-long hearing, S. Machendranathan, Board Chairman, said there was a steep increase in demand in the last two years on account of high rate of economic growth and this contributed to the present shortage.

Work was under way to increase the capacity of power stations by 3,300 megawatt (MW).

To tide over the present shortage, spot purchase of 300 MW to 400 MW was being made at an average cost of around 8.50 per unit. Farmers, who were earlier provided with 14 hour supply, were now getting 10 hours.

S. Kabilan, chairperson, TNERC, was in the chair.

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