Click to play videoChennai: Half-hour power cuts will soon be the norm in industrial areas starting January in Tamil Nadu. It is a first for the state that has an otherwise clean record when it comes to power management.
While this load shedding has been announced only for industries, state Electricity Minister Arcot Veerasamy says this will be extended to households as well. “It's not just for industry, but households and commercial areas will also face power cuts,” Veerasamy confirmed.
Tamil Nadu can boast of alternative sources of energy like windmills and hydroelectric power, but in the last 10 years, successive state governments have overlooked increasing power generation.
“We haven't added any capacity in the last 10 years. We're only now adding 4,000 MW capacity. It will take at least three years,” Veerasamy said.
Lights are off almost every day in the industrial units of Coimbatore and other parts of southern Tamil Nadu. Experts say that indiscriminate handing out of political freebies like free power to farmers and weavers has resulted in this crisis.
Each power cut means a 2 per cent loss in production and textile mill owners, already hit by forex fluctuations, are in a desperate state.
“We will soon become NPAs or non-performing assets if this situation continues. In Chennai industries get uninterrupted power but areas like Coimbatore are frequently hit by power cuts,” Vice President, South India Small Spinners Association, G Soundararajan said.
The government has said industries using furnace oil generators instead of electricity to run their units will be exempt from paying VAT on the fuel, but the industry is not happy.
Under the circumstances the only option for the state government is short-term solutions that is, asking Assam and Haryana for surplus power. They've also petitioned the Centre for unallocated power from the surplus pool.
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