Many parts of Tamil Nadu are witnessing a minimum of four hours of power cut a day owing to the fall in wind power generation, PMK leader S. Ramadoss alleged on Saturday.
In a statement, he said the Chief Minister announced in May this year that there would not be any power cut from June 1 and said her government was proud of turning Tamil Nadu into a power shortage-free State within three years of assuming office. But the three-year efforts and their outcome vanished in just three months.
Quoting data from the Tantransco website, Dr. Ramadoss said the State witnessed a shortfall of 360 MW on August 18, 340 MW on August 19, 940 MW on August 20, 1,190 MW on August 21 and 966 MW on August 22.
When the AIADMK came to power, the total demand was 12,000 MW, and the generation was 8,500 MW. The commissioning of two projects yielded an additional 2,550 MW. Meanwhile, the peak power demand rose to 14,500 MW a day. The increase in generation came with an increase in demand, resulting in a continuous shortfall, he said.
To bridge the gap, the ongoing generation projects should be expedited. Instead of enhancing the generation capacity, the State was banking on wind power, which was available only for a few months. After rains, the demand came down, and even then load-shedding stood at 1,000 MW. At the end of the rainy season and the start of the summer, the demand would go up, and there were fears that the duration of load-shedding might increase.
Dr. Ramadoss said contracts were not finalised for the Ennore and Udangudi projects. The Tuticorin project was yet to start generation. There was no indication yet of the purchase of 2,000 MW from other States as stated by the government earlier, he said. The government should expedite the projects to find a lasting solution by bridging the gap between demand and generation.
