Tamil Nadu managed to narrow the gap between electricity requirement and availability to a negligible 23 million units (MU) in 2016-17 as against a deficit of 690 MU in 2015-16.
The annual Load Generation Balance Report (LGBR) published by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in May predicts the State will achieve power surplus in 2017-18. In 2017-18, the LGBR anticipates a supply of 1,17,771 MU against an energy requirement of 1,09,108 MU. The report has forecast a peak surplus of 2,227 mega watt (MW) with the availability standing at 17,392 MW against the anticipated peak demand of 15,165 MW.
A senior official of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) said that last year too, a surplus was anticipated. The surplus for 2017-18 is likely to be almost 14% as opposed to the anticipated surplus of 4.8% in 2016-17. The official said the small deficit in the actual figure in 2016-17 was because of drought and the prolonged outage of unit 1 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP).
The exhaustive report provides data of anticipated electricity requirement, power availability, peak demand and peak availability, along with electricity requirement in the current year and availability details across the country.
Month-wise statement
In the month-wise statement, Tamil Nadu faced a shortage in energy requirement and peak demand mainly during April and May in 2015-16, and did not face any shortage in either category in 2016-17.
It notes that the State has not fully utilised its entitlement from the Central generating stations. While the scheduled drawal in 2016-17 was 33,062 MU against its entitlement of 36,321 MU, the State consumed 29,717 MU in 2015-16 against the entitlement of 30,259 MU.
