Residents of some parts of the State have been complaining about unscheduled power cuts making a comeback.
While the city has been exempted from any power cuts, those living on the outskirts of the city have been complaining about the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) resorting to unscheduled power cuts during the past week.
In the wake of Opposition parties led by DMK raising the issue of power cuts, Electricity Minister P. Thangamani organised a press meet in the city on Wednesday. Confirming that there were ‘unexpected’ power outages during the past two days, he cited the drop in wind power generation and maintenance work being carried out in central thermal power generating stations and the Kudankulam nuclear power plant as the reasons for the power disruptions.
Mr. Thangamani said the power cut situation was only temporary, but that it was being blown out of proportion by the opposition parties as if there were power blackouts for long hours all over the State. The Electricity Minister said the electricity demand during the month of September and October, normally, would be in the range of 14,300 mega watt (MW) and wind generation would be to the extent of minimum of 6,000 MW. Based on the availability of wind generation, the central thermal power generating stations including the Vallur (1,500 MW) thermal power plant had scheduled their maintenance work during September this year.
Mr. Thangamani said the sudden drop in wind generation from Monday and the scheduled maintenance work in central power generating stations, which were yielding electricity in the range of 3,000 to 3,500 MW against 6,000 MW had resulted in the shortage of power.
Gap in power generation
Not even one MW of power has been generated from the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, which has been shut down for maintenance work for the past three months, he said. This caused a huge gap in electricity generation, he added.
Despite the huge electricity supply gap in the central power stations, the State has been managing the power situation without any major power cuts, he said.
He said the situation would be normalised within two to three days by scaling up the production in Tangedco’s thermal and hydro stations and power purchase from the open market.
Rebutting the corruption charges in the procurement of coal by DMK leader M.K. Stalin, Mr. Thangamani said Tangedco has been following the Tamil Nadu Tender Transparency Rules, 2000 and the Tender Transparency Act, 1998, for procuring imported coal.
The Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) has said that the adopting of e-tender with e-reverse auction has resulted in savings to the round of ₹182 crore in 2017 in the purchase of coal.
He also refuted the corruption allegations regarding purchase of electronic and static meters and long-term power purchase from private entities.
