Domestic consumers in most parts of the State on Thursday experienced three hours of load shedding. However, Chennai city was exempted from it.
In the case of three-phase power supply to agricultural connections, the duration of supply during day was reduced by two hours.
Normally, the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) provides three-phase supply to farm connections for six hours during day and three hours during night.
Senior officials of the TANGEDCO described the reduction in the hours of supply as temporary. They attribute the development to a jump in power demand, which, in turn, was due to the sudden tripping of a 210-megawatt unit in Neyveli, a rise in the maximum temperature and fall in wind power generation.
On an average, 1,600 MW is bought daily at high cost to meet the gap between supply and demand.
Night supply
Pointing out that the duration of night supply was reduced to three hours some months ago, the officials say that efforts are on to provide supply for one more hour during night.