It is back to 14 hours or more of power cut a day here, with unannounced load shedding schedules.
Some parts of the city did not have power from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. (four hours), 12 to 4 p.m. (four hours), and from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. (two hours) on Tuesday apart from the load shedding at night.
According to data available on the Tantransco (Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation) website, wind energy generation was almost nil on November 6 and 7. Load shedding in the State on Wednesday morning was to tune of 3,422 MW and 3,067 MW on Tuesday evening. On November 1 and 2, load shedding was just 1,525 MW and 1,992 MW.
With heavy rain in different parts of the State last week, electricity consumers had experienced relief from the 14 hours of power cut for about a week. Hence, they did not expect the extension in load shedding duration on Tuesday morning.
“If someone had not pumped water to the overhead tank at home and suffered power cut from 6 a.m. to 10 .m. without any prior notice, all their morning activities will be hit,” said one of the consumers at Ramanathapuram, Coimbatore. It is difficult to even grind dough at home, re-charge inverters, charge mobile phones, etc.
In rural areas of the district, the load shedding was for a longer duration compared to the urban areas.
K. Kathirmathiyon, secretary of Coimbatore Consumer Cause, says that people are affected at all levels of the society – for instance, women who make savouries at home for sale during the festival season are hit, carpenters are affected.
Income has reduced for many because of the power problem. When there are ways to reduce the load shedding, there seems to be no effort to regulate distribution of the power available, he says.
