One of the two thermal power units has resumed production but the present spell of load shedding continues in many parts of Tiruchi, Madurai and Coimbatore regions.
On Monday evening, the unit at the North Chennai Thermal Power Station, having the capacity of 600 megawatt (MW), was brought back. Efforts are on to restore the other unit of the similar capacity at the Mettur Thermal Power Station, an official says. On Tuesday morning, the peak demand met was 11,456 MW. At that time, the quantum of load shedding was 748 MW.
There was no load shedding on Tamil New Year Day on Monday and on Sunday even in rural parts of Tiruchi district but load shedding returned to Tiruchi city on Tuesday with two-hour power cut.
In the western districts of Coimbatore and Tirupur, the duration of load shedding came down during day in the last few days, power cuts continue for half an hour to 45 minutes for every three hours during night, says a micro unit owner near Pollachi.
However, the State’s southern districts are not as lucky as the central or western districts. In addition to scheduled load shedding, many towns are suffering from unscheduled spells too. Tirunelveli and Palayamkottai, apart from two-hour power cut during the day, are experiencing load shedding for two hours during the night.
Until the 10 Standard public examinations were over about a week ago, houses in school zones had an uninterrupted supply during the day. But since then, the situation has deteriorated, says A. Sebastian of Chinnalapatti of the Dindigul district. Chennai remains free of load shedding.
Officials of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) in Tiruchi and Madurai say the position is dynamic and the duration of load shedding depends on demand and availability of power on any given day. The daily overall energy consumption in the State, recently, went up from 260 million units (MU) to 285 million units (MU).
