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The power situation in Tamil Nadu is quite tight and the industry is indeed suffering for want of electricity.
A typical case is that of Hinduja Foundries, a company that consumes 1.2 million units of electricity a month at its Ennore and Sriperumbudur plants. The production has been affected in the second shift, says Mr P. Thomas Manoharan, AGM Projects.
The company is obliged to keep the workforce idle in the second shift, he says. “The power shortage is so bad that we fear our customers may leave us,” Mr Manoharan says.
The State distribution utility, Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation, has been buying less from the seven Independent Power Producers, which have a total available capacity of 1,078 MW. These plants have worked for a little over half their capacity since April. Generation, at 1.9 billion units, from hydel plants is also down compared with last year (2.6 billion units.)
Prices firm
Since electricity prices on the power exchanges are also firm, there appears to be no respite for consumers in the State.
The installed capacity in Tamil Nadu stands at 16,050 MW, but 6,348 MW of this is ‘wind', which is seasonal and infirm.
Demand for electricity has been growing at 12 per cent a year, and there has been no base load capacity in several years. “Tamil Nadu's performance with respect to the addition of base-load capacities leaves much to be desired,” says Mr Rajiv Rai, Executive Chairman, RKKR Steels.
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