State has been experiencing shortfall of 1,026 MW in the past four days

Faced with a shortfall of 1,026 Megawatts in power supply in the last four days owing to various factors, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has directed the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) to purchase power from open market to tackle the situation.

In a statement here on Sunday, she said that owing to several constructive steps taken by her in the field of electricity as soon as she took over, power cut in places other than Chennai was reduced from three hours to two hours since July 1. Her government had initiated a number of steps to tackle power scarcity in the State and planned to eliminate power shortage by August next year.

However, the ongoing Telangana agitation in Andhra Pradesh had affected the functioning of the Singareni collieries. This had resulted in a slump in power generation at the National Thermal Power Corporation station at Ramagundam by about 1,100 MW. “Owing to such a situation, Tamil Nadu is able to get only half of what it should get from the Ramagundam station.” Besides, owing to the floods in Orissa, the electricity that the State should get from the Talcher Thermal Power Station had also come down. In addition, there was a shortfall in receipt of power from the Neyveli Thermal Power Station, Kalpakkam Atomic Power Plant, Kaiga Atomic Power Plant and Simhadri Thermal Power Station.

“Hence, for the past four days, Tamil Nadu has been receiving 1,026 MW less than what it should get from these sources and this has led to unexpected power disruptions in various places.”

Though the total installed capacity of windmills in the State is 6,007MW, the State is not getting power uniformly from this source. “As wind velocity has come down, generation from windmills has also suffered substantially.”

The Chief Minister said that only if the State could manage 1,026 MW from other sources, it would be possible to avoid power disruptions and assuage the suffering of the public.

“Hence, I have ordered purchase of power from open market till the shortage of power caused by Telangana agitation and the Orissa floods is managed.”