• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy
• Books

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

R. Yegya Narayanan

Coimbatore, Dec. 29 Industries in Coimbatore have asked the Tamil Nadu Government to enforce a reduction in power cut rather than the two-day weekly power holiday as the units have scheduled their working accordingly.

They also said that there is no foolproof way to implement a power holiday which would give an unfair advantage to the violators.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Mahendra Ramdas, President, Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), Coimbatore, said Mr Arcot N. Veerasamy, Electricity Minister, had held a meeting in Chennai on Monday where modifying the existing pattern of power cut was discussed. It was said that the Government put before the industry representatives two options – a reduction in power cut from 40 per cent to 30 per cent for HT consumers and for LTCT consumers from 20 per cent to 15 per cent or two days of power holiday in a week enforced on different days in different regions. The industry representatives at the meeting opted for the first option.

The ICCI President said he had discussed the suggestions made by the Government with some ICCI members and the unanimous view was that a reduction in power cut was a preferable option than the power holiday. He said the industrial units were facing not only the 40 per cent power cut, but also a 4-hour peak-time stoppage and two hours of load shedding every day and they have come to terms with this shortage. The industries have scheduled their working taking into view the power availability and most of them were functioning at 60 per cent capacity utilisation. The fixed power cut was more convenient to follow from an operational point than power holiday.

He feared that the second option of power holiday would be difficult to implement and the compliance level could suffer, particularly by units in remote areas.

This would put the units that follow the rule strictly at a disadvantage as their production would suffer while those violating the rules could gain from running their units despite the power holiday. The poor compliance would cause grid disturbance and unscheduled power cuts may be resorted to.

He said the industry associations have been requesting the Government for diesel subsidy for using generators to meet the power shortage but the Government has not accepted this demand.

Because of the high cost of captive power generation, the industries were unwilling to use captive power to meet the shortfall in grid power.

More Stories on : Power | Tamil Nadu

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line