Most areas of Chennai and its suburbs were spared of the scheduled two-hour power shutdown over the past five days.
An increase in wind power generation and a reduction in the electricity consumption due to the cool weather were cited as the reasons for the temporary withdrawal of power cuts.
P. Anand, a resident of Purasawalkam, was happy at the power cut-free Christmas. “The weather has also been pleasant. I managed a few hours without fan or AC,” he added.
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On Thursday, Chennai and the suburbs experienced a close to normal maximum temperature of 29 degree Celsius. The overcast sky has helped keep the city cool during the day. Night temperature has been hovering around the normal of 21.6 degree Celsius.
Officials of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) said that normally, wind power generation is minimal during this time of the year. Officials of the Meteorological Department said the period between May and October is usually more favourable for generation. But, it has picked up over the past few days.
On December 2, when two-hour load-shedding was announced, wind generation was 56 mega watt (MW). On Christmas day, 619 MW was generated, according to data from the State Load Despatch Centre.
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The increase in wind generation during this time of the year was possible due to the slight increase in pressure gradient that causes air to move from one place to another, creating more winds. As the northeast monsoon advances, easterly winds build up and this could also have had an impact on the wind generation, an official said.
A senior official of Tangedco said that the weather has also led to power consumption coming down by 50 per cent. Moreover, some of the thermal units like Vallur, Kadamparai, Kaiga (Stage 1) and the Madras Atomic Power Station, which were facing technical snags, are functioning normally.