Does June herald winds of change
for Tamilnadu ?
The weather in Chennai is mostly
hot, irrespective of the months and in Summer, it scorches even when closer to
the Bay of Bengal . The availability of quality and reliable
power is critical for economic development of the State. Growth in power consumption is an indicator
of the industrial, agricultural and
commercial growth of a State. The State has been reeling under power
shortage for some years now. It is
stated that the demand is 11,500MW and generation is lower than half of it. The State
reeling under acute power shortage resorted to long hours of unscheduled power cuts. More was to follow when the situation
worsened with some parts of the Districts facing outages over six hours and
some power holidays were also scheduled.
Some reports do state that the
intensity of summer has reduced in many parts of the State – but the City has
not had any relief. It continues to be
hot and without power, people have been suffering. Production units have been hit the most. Some summer rains would bring relief to the
suffering by cooling down the temperature.
There is some real good news for the power users ……….
From today, domestic consumers in
Chennai will have to bear only one-hour load shedding and those in remaining
parts of the State, three hours. The
scheme of power holiday for low-tension and high tension industrial
establishments has been withdrawn completely. As part of it the State had been
divided into six regions and industrial units in each region were required not
to draw power on an assigned day apart from Sundays. The
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has
issued a statement issued on Friday [1/6/12] announcing substantial improvement in supply position in
the last few weeks owing to the availability of more wind power. She expressed the hope that several thermal
power projects and the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project would be commissioned
shortly. “The present restriction and control measures will be gradually
relaxed. Appropriate steps will be taken after holding a review of the
situation next month.” Ms. Jayalalithaa
issued the statement after chairing a high-level meeting attended by senior
officials.
Four units of the 840 MW Mettur
Thermal Power Station, which was badly affected by a fire early in May, have
resumed generation to their capacity. In
recent weeks, the State has been getting, on an average, 2,000 MW through
windmills. A report in Times of India states that out of
installed energy capacity of 7094 MW wind mills have been providing 2767,
2869,3469, 2654 & 2821 MW in the past 5 days from May 28th till June 1st.
That kindles greater hopes of
better times in sight on the power front. It was torrid time and the State has endured a
sweltering summer, the present news is a
great relief for people in Tamil Nadu.
Board officials are quoted as stating that various factors
contributed to allow them to reduce the total hours of scheduled power cuts in
the state. The stoppage of outage will reduce dependence on limited fuel
sources like diesel and ease the pressure and cost for the industries. The wind situation is expected to remain good till the end of September.
The onset of the southwest monsoon
in neighbouring Kerala will ease the situation further as cooler weather will mean less consumption
of energy. Happy days are here again !!
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar .
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