The acute power shortage in Tamil Nadu may be overcome by the second half of next year as new generation capacity would become operational in the first half of 2013, according to the State Electricity Minister Natham Viswanathan.

He said no substantial relief could accrue to the rest of Tamil Nadu by increasing the duration of power cut enforced in Chennai as suggested by the industries in the Coimbatore.

The Minister said that a part of the Mettur and Vallur power projects would go on stream in the next few weeks. The hydel power generation was also expected to pick up when the North East monsoon sets in.

The Minister pointed out that additional capacity would `come into operation’ in the first half of 2013’ and in the second half, `the power shortage will be fully overcome’.

The Electricity Minister said that because of the bottleneck in the grid to transmit power from the North to Tamil Nadu, even the `contracted power purchase from Gujarat could not be brought. The grid congestion was due to the power purchases by other Southern States that faced greater power shortage than Tamil Nadu.

Responding to queries from the association representatives, the Electricity Minister clarified that imposition of a higher quantum of power cut in Chennai `may not bring much relief to the rest of the State’. He added that in Chennai the industrial consumers faced the same quantum of power cut as in rest of Tamil Nadu and `as it is Chennai is also affected by the present shortage’. (This has been a major demand of the industrialists and consumers here because of the perceived favour shown to Chennai vis a vis other parts of the state.).

On the issue of avoiding frequent power interruptions and providing power continuously for a specified period, the Minister said this could be discussed with the TNEB officials at the local level.

He was not favourable to the idea of removal of cross subsidy surcharge since TNEB would not be able to buy power to supply to households as industries would consume all the private power.

Members of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu Electricity Consumers Association, Southern India Mills’ Association, Coimbatore District Small Industries Association, South India Spinners Association, Institute of Indian Foundrymen and Southern India Engineering Manufacturers’ Association, were in the delegation that met the Electricity Minister.