Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) Chairman C. P. Singh on Thursday said that capital investment of Rs.8,000 crore to Rs.10,000 crore was being contemplated in the power sector in the State every year.
In the last two years, investments of Rs.4,000-crore were made for augmenting the sector, he said while addressing a public hearing on tariff revision organised here on Thursday by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC).
A Rs.1,500-crore project was also under way to reduce transmission and distribution losses, which stood at around 19 per cent. Almost all sections of power consumers, barring commercial enterprises, were being subsidised at rates varying from 10 paise to Rs.2 a unit.
Such huge investments, some already made and some proposed, had created a gap between the Board's revenue and expenditure. It was to bridge this gap that the TNEB had proposed tariff revision, he said mounting a stout defence of the proposed revision.
It was calculated that an average family would consume 100 units a month. Small-scale industrial units consumed 1,500 units bi-monthly or 750 units a month. Both these categories of customers had been exempted from the proposed revision. Even the maximum proposed revision was Re.1 a unit.
Speaking about the current power situation, he said that the present gap between supply and demand was 25-30 per cent or around 3,000 MW. Such a gap could be found even at the national level.
The State had been informed that the Koodankulam nuclear power plantwould be commissioned in September. Tamil Nadu's share in this project was 965 MW.
“We will be in a position to export power by the year 2012. The TNEB is doing everything possible to tide over the present power situation,” he said.
