“I don't like sitting in the verandah and studying but I have to get used to it slowly” “I just hope they go by the planned cuts, and don't introduce erratic cuts”
As news of the two-hour power cut that will take effect from Monday sinks in, people in the city are bracing themselves for an extended ordeal.
On Sunday, residents like S.Devi, who works in a private company in Thiruvanmiyur, were out to purchase emergency lamps for use in the office. “My supervisor asked me to find out how much a lamp costs so I came here to have a look,” she said, accompanied by her niece Kavita who studies in class XI.
With board exams round the corner, school students too will have to work on their schedules. From Monday, R. Suganya, a class XII student, will go for entrance coaching in the morning instead of the evenings. This is because her class timings have been changed. “Our entire schedules have to be modified to suit the power cuts,” she said.
For others like Sai Prakash, a student who is preparing to attempt class XII examination, it calls for all the more rigour and new habits. “I don't like sitting in the verandah and studying but I have to get used to it slowly,” he says.
The extended power cut is bad news for those who need medical assistance at home or in nursing homes for chronic ailments as well.
“We provide dialysis at subsidised rates to eight persons everyday at the Lions Club of Avadi. Now that the power cuts are going to be extended by an hour, many patients will be affected as we cannot extend our working hours,” said B.Gajapathy, a member of the Lions Club of Avadi.
Livelihood matters
As for small businesses which are significantly dependent on electricity they have a tough road ahead. Shanmuga Sundaram, in Thiruvanmiyur, collects old newspapers and magazines and sells them to the recycler everyday.
“Work comes to a stand still because the electrical weighing machine will not work during the power cuts and I cannot dispatch the load. And by the time the power returns and I get my load to the recycle unit in Kodambakkam, it is time for their cut. We are paid on day to day basis, and the rate of the paper is only going down. We will lose a lot of our income this way,” he said.
His story is not unique, for several others engaged in various professions and small businesses are quite worried too. “There is nothing more I can do,” said K. Sasi, a hair dresser, lighting up a mosquito coil at a dingy shop in a complex in Adyar. Summers are usually a good time for him as at least five customers come for an ‘army cut' every day, but this year, the situation might not be the same. “No one wants a hair cut without the fan. I had a shop right on the main road 55 years ago. Due to rising prices I had to relocate here,” he added. He envies the next-door Salon Topaz which has an air conditioner that will try to retain the customer at least for some time. However they have their own set of woes.
“Inverters work only for one hour, and can be used to run just the fan and tube lights and not the steamers and dryers that we use. With the investment we make on infrastructure, we will get the gains only if we have clients who want day long services, which is ruled out now,” said R. Venkatesh, owner, Salon Topaz.
Most flour mills also have a tie- up with hotels and restaurants, and have deadlines. They run on diesel generators which his has increased their power cost. “We charge Rs.5 for a kilo of flour, which can be increased to Rs.7. We cannot work during nights because the rules don't permit us to. The immediate requirements of customers cannot be addressed, and that might mean losing some of our customers,” says R. Vasanthi, Bhavani maavu mill, Mylapore.
The power crisis is forcing some to consider alternatives for supplementing their income. V. Atmaram of G Xerox feels that the power cut from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. will affect his business more as it falls within the peak time when most students come there. To compensate for the loss, he has started spiral binding now. “I just hope they go by the planned cuts, and don't introduce erratic cuts,” he added.
Backup power
Altering schedules and finding additional sources of income may be one way to cope with the situation, but equipping households and business units to function during the power cut seems to be a popular strategy as well, if the steady sale of emergency lamps and invertors is any indication. “Since April last year, we have been selling 30 to 40 pieces every month and due to the power cuts, it is only going to get higher during the summer months,” said M.Kathirvel, branch manager, Chellamani & Co. in Thiruvanmiyur. At the Vasanth & Co. outlet in T.Nagar, R.Siva, a sales person said that in the last month alone over 25 pieces have been sold.
Alternatives
Many residents have installed inverters which have become a necessity to tackle prolonged power cuts, said V.Karthikeyan, who has worked as a salesman at S.S.Annamalai Enterprises for 23 years. “In March, the sales will pick up as summer will set in and school exams will begin,” he said.
Salespersons at companies dealing in electrical appliances feel customers are interested in the aesthetics of the product and are not worried so much about the energy consumption.
“While power production is stagnant and has not increased, most consumer durables that are available in the market, run on electricity,” said Mr.Karthikeyan. “Unless consumers are careful and save energy, the situation is only going to get worse.”
Keywords: power outage
We are not supposed to complain about planning department. Its corruption and theft at local level is creating a problem. If EB & Corporation department stick to the polices without political interferences then at least 30% can be saved in the present situation. Do they wake up at least now?
People will have to stop complaining and learn to adjust to make do with available power. Many households use air conditioning which consumes more power than all other utilities put together. Let us save more power by making ideal use of what is available.
It is an irony that people who use free power want supply to be stopped to people who pay for electricity. Let there be a ban on public meetings till power supply increases.
If I'm part of the Tamil Nadu C.M’s advisory committee, would recommend giving the solar panel to all T.N citizens while cancelling the Fans, Mixy’s and Grinders. It will help the citizens to have their own power producing pack instead of power consuming units like above. The public money would be spent to give them some reduction on electricity bills and so on. The solar power industry would production base in T.N and the supporting technicians (indirect job opportunity) to citizens would have been created with it. Similar to mid-day meal program (T.N is the first state to introduce) T.N would be the role model in enabling/harnessing environment friendly and clean power production base with substantial reduction in domestic consumption. The power dependent industries would flourish with surplus powers they got. Hope THE HINDU would carry my message to honorable C.M to reconsider. I’m sure the people of Tamil Nadu overwhelmingly appreciate the C.M on changing the election manifest
Chennai people are crying because they are gong to have 2 hour power cuts everyday?? LOL... the rest of TN has 12 hour powercuts everyday.! atleast now you will know how it is to live elsewere and understand what other people through.!
Believe me the best time to Meditate is when there is load
shedding. There is total silence, with missing purring of equipments
like the fridge, tube lights and the like. This does not apply to the
places where the inverters are in use, for they generate much more
noise.
TN Government should follow some of the Best Practices followed in
other States. Example, there are some state which emphasis compulsory
Solar Water Heating System in high rise buildings/apartments.
Additionally, Government is giving subsidy for solar products. TN
People should not worry for 2 hrs power cuts, as someone earlier has
posted that there are many states wherein 8 hours power cut is
applicable. None of these people have complained instead are using
the electric power judicially. Moreover, this deliberate power cut
and advertising the same is nothing but to arose the people's
sentiment for early opening of Kodankulam Nuclear Power Plant. The
people who have been agitating against the opening of the KNPP should
restore to normalcy and pave way for early opening of the plant. As
the scientist have taken due care on the safety as compared to
elsewhere in the world.
I cannot understand how our ENGINEERS are unable to come up with some INNOVATIVE and COST EFFECTIVE Solutions to solve the ENERGY CRISIS.
SOLAR is one of them that INDIA NEEDS to Get in a big way. China has overtaken most of the DEVELOPED countries in manufacturing Photo Voltaic Cells. When is INDIA going to do the same. My idea for Restaurants to make DOSA, IDLY, Vada Batter is to hook several BICYCLES to Grinders that will do the churning... The same idea can be used for other industries. MANY GYMS can be hooked up too to covert the Tread Mills, Stair Masters etc into usable energy.....THIS CAN BE DONE.......
I don't understand what the fuss about a 2-hr power shutdown is about.
We, elsewhere in Tamil Nadu suffer a power outage between 8-10 hours on
a daily basis. I understand that we are children of a lesser God!
Why cant the government generate solar power. If solar energy generated by the Helios programme in Greece could power German industry, why cant we develop a similar project in Chennai. It is much safer, reliable and greener. With the sea besides us, developing tidal power could also be a potential alternative. using precious natural resources and fossil fuels is not the answer and then conserving them through power cuts just shows that the governement is running of ideas in dealing with this power crisis.
Does the planned power cuts include the residential areas where our
state govt ministers reside.
It is suggested to distribute maximum of three battery operated lanterns
to ration card holders through PDS to compensate the power cut at home.
Get used to it Chennai, and the rest of India too! Without serious long-term planning for expansion of power production, there is no way our needs will be met. Our decision makers are almost always playing catch up, leave alone being current with information and knowledge. Forget about thinking about the future. India is willing to embrace mediocrity and live with a compromising attitude in whatever we do, and as long as this doesn't change, we will only go backwards.
India's needs are only going to increase, so what are we waiting for? More ill informed crusaders to tell us atomic power and atomic bombs are the same thing?
It will be better to cut power morning one hour and evening one hour or atleast from 2pm to 4pm this will not affect too much
Installing solar panels at all homes with loans, subsidy from government can be a great help. Atleast for a city like chennai it is worth to depend on solar energy to satisfy the need of electricity to some extent. This can be made compulsory for all.
my 2 cents:
Why not plan all the party meetings / celebration (the big ones) during day time and save the electricity - which any way unpaid, if the celebration is of ruling party!!!
This is ridiculous! It's hard to believe that the government has
resorted to such an extreme measure without any iota of reflection
upon the consequences of its decision. Has the government factored in
the loss of revenue to the exchequer? Has the government thought about
many lost opportunities by businesses as a result of this which again
reduces the flow of revenue into its treasury? The government, on the
one hand is trying to reduce cost because of excess consumption of
electricity but on the other hand, ends up incurring even more losses
as a consequence of its stupidity.
There are two ways to respond to shortage of resources: one is by
cutting cost which is often easy and the other is by coming up with
innovative ideas to address the problem which is difficult.
It isn't any wonder that the government, populated by thoughtless
creatures, has chosen the former!
Govt should allow private enterprises to generate and sell electric power. Why should we have power cut if not for our stupidity. Electricity is not like water inside the well. You have only so much to consume in a day. It is becuase of poor palnning on the part of engineers and ministers we end up in such a situation every year. In the the coming election Citizens should punish the elected representatives for depriving them with a basic need like electricity.
I cannot believe that this is happening. Where are the planners? what is the government doing in terms of planning for incrased energy use? Why can't we be proactive and plan for the future? These powercuts have been happening over serveral years now. It is not that things happned overnight. The electricity board and the concerned department should have estimated the potential increase in demand for electricity and put in place a Energy demand management plan to avoid putting the public in such incovenience. So much for planning!
The Chennaites now make a hue and cry about the increase in power-cut just
for an hour making a total power cut of 2 hours only. Did they ever
bother about the sufferings of the people living in other parts of the
state who are suffocating under a real power cut of more than EIGHT
hours a day? For non-chennaites 2 hour power cut is nothing.
This business of one government blaming the previous regime must stop. Tamilians are used to power cuts for a long period. Why then stop the Kudankulam Power plant which will ease the power situation. Rather than complain the government must become pro-active and look for alternatives. Stop the free power distribution. Freebies have spoiled Tamilnadu.
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