Residents in the city and industries here have started facing longer hours of load shedding every day, which has even forced the industries to contemplate on a private power project.
Though the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation announced two-hour load shedding every day, the city has started facing frequent power disruptions and longer hours of load shedding.
“We resorted to three hours load shedding on Wednesday as there is a shortage in power availability. There are difficulties in procuring more power from the market,” according to a senior official of the corporation here. Prices of power have gone up during the last two days in the market. Further, wind energy generation has also dropped. The corporation may have to continue with longer hours of load shedding if power procurement continues to be a problem, the official added.
According to Mahendra Ramdas, President of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Consumers’ Association, industries here will be forced to look at moving to other places if the power problem continued. “There seems to be no short-term solution in sight for the power problem.” While the scheduled power cut is only for two hours a day, there is no time limit for unscheduled power cuts. High Tension consumers do not get prior information of the power disruptions. Further, the quality of power is also poor, he says.
The demand for power from the market also increases during summer. Hence, some of the industries are looking at jointly setting up a private power plant to meet their needs. The Government should restrict use of power for lavish purposes, he adds.
