The announcement of the State Government on the one-hour reduction in the duration of daily load shedding has evoked a sense of relief among both the industries and domestic consumers.
In her reply to the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had announced in the Legislature on Friday that scheduled power cuts in the State would be reduced from three to two hours from July besides steps to augment the installed power capacity by 10,000 megawatts in five years.
Although not a complete relief, this respite has been welcomed particularly by the senior citizens, the aged and elderly who are put much hassle under this sweltering summer heat. However, residents and trade bodies are urging the power authorities to factor in their concerns while reducing the power cuts duration.
Rozario Lloyd Gerard, a resident of Nagamalai Pudukottai area, said that the power cuts in morning hours were posing problems for office-goers and house wives. The cooking gets very much affected when the load shedding is undertaken between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m.
He urged the power authorities to scrap this time and re-schedule the load shedding to later in the day. Many a times, he said, there was also inadequate intimation of the load shedding and the changes in the schedule.
Another major area that warranted immediate intervention by government was in the sales of power inverters. Besides calling for a crackdown on profiteering in this sector, he also wanted Tamil Nadu to adopt the Kerala model where, he said, load shedding was undertaken only for half-hour to one hour.
Tamil Nadu Small and Tiny Industries Association (TANSTIA) vice-president KR. Gnanasambandan said that instead of the two-hour load shedding, the State Government could also consider reviving the system of ‘power holidays,' which was briefly implemented during the early stages of the power crisis.
Under this ‘power holiday' system, Tamil Nadu was divided into various zones with industries in each zone told to shutdown operations completely for one or two days of a week and given assured supply for 24 hours in remaining days of the week.
Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) should also consider purchasing power from the captive units of big industries. Apart from boosting economic activity, this would an investment that could bring in good returns, he said.
Welcoming the announcement to reduce load shedding by an hour, Madurai District Tiny and Small Scale Industries Association (MADITSSIA) president N. Somasundaram appealed to TANGEDCO to implement load shedding only in morning hours for industrial areas
Such a move, he said, would greatly benefit the industrial units as they could run three shifts for rest of the day continuously without any interruption. Such a move would also benefit domestic consumers as households have been demanding power in the morning hours. When the power generated from windmills improves after better infrastructure for evacuation was installed and if the Centre allocates the additional power sought by the State, Mr. Somasundaram said that the load shedding duration should be even further reduced.
M.R. Rajendran, president of Kappalur Industrial Estate Manufacturers' Association, said, “Our association has already met the Chief Engineer of Madurai (Distribution), TANGEDCO, and presented him a memorandum seeking to implement power cuts for our estate only between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.” Such a system was once implemented for the estate and reviving such a system would greatly benefit the units at Kappalur, he said.
What they say:
K. R. Gnanasambandan, TANSTIA vice-president: “Give industry assured power supply”
Rozario Lloyd Gerard, resident: “Scrap load shedding at morning”
