Necessitated by interconnection work between new power plant and grid
The Tamil Nadu government has decided to extend load shedding for another hour in and around Chennai, making it two hours of outage a day, from June 27 to July 7. This was attributed to the interconnection work between the Vallur thermal power plant and the interstate grid.
On June 19, TNEB announced an hour's power cut every five hours in every ward in the city and suburbs between June 21 and 30. But as the duration of the outages was not well-received by the residents, the government withdrew the proposal the next day.
The government has said the power cut is inevitable due to a 300 MW shortage caused by the proposed shutdown of the Nellore-Alamathi power line for the construction work.
The line is part of the southern grid, and carries over 375 MW of power. The electricity is transferred to Sriperumbadur, and from there to Taramani, Koyambedu and other parts of the city. The Power Grid Corporation of India has proposed to lay 400 km of power line covering these places.
Load shedding is necessary to connect a 3x500 MW power plant at Vallur, a joint venture between TNEB and NTPC, with the inter-state grid. "We won't be able to connect the generating unit and the grid if the 400 KV power line that supplies the city is active," the state government said.
The 1,500 MW Vallur power project is scheduled to be completed by December this year. Once commissioned, the generated power will be wheeled to Tamil Nadu and other states. For this, TNEB has to lay a transmission network between the generating point and the grid. A similar shutdown will be implemented before the North Chennai power project is completed.
The government said that it would take all the necessary steps to address the power crisis in the state by adding 10,000 MW of power in the next five years and proposed to make available proper transmission infrastructure to make use of the 600 MW wind energy available in the state.
Recently, chief minister Jayalalithaa said that two natural gas turbine units in the state had started operations and they were capable of generating around 200 MW combined. “The present power crisis was entirely due to the previous government,” said the Chief Minister.
She noted that during her previous rule (between 2001 and 2006) the government had signed an MoU with National Power Corporation for a 1,000 MW thermal plant at Vallur, another with Neyveli Lignite Corporation for 1,000 MW power project in Tuticorin.
“But no further action was taken by the previous government, especially on the land acquisition,” she said.
The chief minister recently met the Prime Minister and submitted a memorandum in which she asked for a special bail-out package of Rs 40,000 crore to wipe out the debt burden of the state-run power distribution firm, Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (Tangedco).
With the state running in deficit of 1,500 MW, even after a purchase of nearly 1,800 MW in the open market, the demand-supply gap is managed by the corporation through restriction and control measures like load shedding.
Owing to the financial burden in purchase of power, the corporation has posted an accumulated loss of Rs 38,000 crore as on March 31, 2011, compared to a loss of Rs 4,900 crore in 2005-06. The outstanding debt level has also increased from Rs 9,300 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 40,300 crore in 2010-11.
It has also demanded adequate funding under Jawaharlal Nehru Solar Mission to set up 10 solar energy parks to generate 3000 MW power and also put up solar powered street lights in the villages, at an estimated project cost of Rs 45,000 crore. Meanwhile, the empowered committee of the ministry of power last week decided to allow private sector participation in transmission lines in the state, which would require an investment to the tune of over Rs 2,845 crore.
These projects include evacuation of power from proposed coastal generation projects in Nagapattanam-Cuddalore. The total estimated line length is around 1,200 km.
