TN secures 600 Mw to tide over shortfall

The Tamil Nadu government is gearing up to tide over the power shortfall in the state. It has managed to secure about 600 Mw of power from the Centre and a few states to meet its power requirements.

The state, which claimed to be comfortable in terms of power availability, has faced a marked power crisis over the last couple of months.

The power shortfall is estimated between 650 Mw and 700 Mw at present. The state government has attributed this to a drop in power generation through windmills to the tune of 1,500 Mw, non-availability of 500 Mw from the Centre's utilities, and the supply of 500 Mw from the Neyveli Lignite Corporation due to heavy rains disrupting power generation.

However, the state has been making efforts to overcome the power shortage. It has started procuring about 300 Mw of power from the Centre out of the latter's pool of unallocated power.

This was obtained following a request by Tamil Nadu chief minister N Karunanidhi and his subsequent meeting with the Union power minister during his recent visit to New Delhi.

The state has also been procuring 150 Mw of power from Kerala and another 150 Mw from Assam and Haryana under a swap agreement, according to a top official of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB).

Based on the agreement, Tamil Nadu will get power from these states for the next 3-4 months and will return the power during April-October, he said.

The official also said the TNEB had allowed Salem Steel Plant (SSP) to wheel power from a captive plant in Durgapur, West Bengal. SSP is the first company in the state to wheel power from a plant outside the state under the captive use mode.

"SSP has applied for wheeling of power from the Durgapur captive power plant to meet its power requirements. We have granted them permission to fetch power from that plant," the official added.

SSP has been drawing 5 Mw of power from the Durgapur captive power plant and will pay transmission and wheeling costs to TNEB for this.