Minister for Electricity, Excise and Prohibition P. Thangamani said that 100 units of free electricity to consumers and free electricity to farmers will continue as the State has generated surplus electricity.
Addressing media persons here on Sunday, the Minister said the power demand in the State was 15,000 MW every day while the supply was 19,000 MW.
Apart from this, there was an increase in solar power and wind energy generation.
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He said Tangedco suffered loss of ₹12,000 crore in 2014-15 which was reduced to ₹ 3,000 crore in the current year. “In another two years, Tangedco will be a profit making company,” he said.
Denying a media report that said that increase in loss would result in scrapping free electricity, Mr. Thangamani said that 100 unit free electricity was benefiting 1.91 crore families in the State and the free electricity to farmers would continue.
The Minister said that North Chennai witnessed four-hour power cuts on April 26 due to tripping in lines between Manali and Mylapore. The problem was rectified on a war footing and supply restored at 3 a.m.
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Taking a dig at Opposition leader M.K. Stalin, who said that the government did not have the time to think about the power cuts, Mr. Thangamani said such wrong information was only to gain political mileage.
He said that by joining in the UDAY Scheme, the State was getting benefited as coal could be purchased from the domestic market instead of importing from foreign countries. “Due to this, production expenses will be cut down by ₹500 crore this year,” he added.