Why sudden power cuts occur in the suburban areas?
Posted on: 04/Jul/2018 3:32:50 PM
The public has been put to undue huge hardships due to the sudden and unannounced power cuts in the suburban and the rural/village areas. There is a daily demand of electricity of 14000 MW in the state of Tamil Nadu. This tends to increase during the summer season. Accordingly, as on the date of 27th April, the demand of the state had increased to 15440 MW at the peak demand.
As the windmills season has started, an average of daily 2000 MW of additional electric power is obtained from the windmill generation. So, the generation of the 600 MW unit in the Mettur expansion thermal power station is stopped for maintenance work. Also, another 600 MW (the 2nd Unit) at the North Chennai is shut down due to some technical problems from 20th June. In order to compensate for the closure of these 2 thermal power station generation units, TANGEDCO decided to commence the windmill power generation.
In this situation, over the last few days, apart from the important urban areas including the Chennai Metro City, the residents of certain suburban and rural/village areas have complained that there is an unannounced power-cut arrangement on a daily basis for 1 hour each in the morning and evening sessions.
The affected residents explained that the power is being cut for half-an-hour during the period from 6.00 AM to 10.00 AM and for another 1 hour during the evening session from 6.00 PM to 10.00 PM. On complaining to the relevant authorities, they explained that though 3000 MW additional power is obtained from the windmill power generation, on some days, only 1000 MW is available during the evening sessions. So, it has become rather difficult to meet the power demand. A TANGEDCO official informed that only lower additional power is obtained from the windmill power generation and the central electricity grid. Even then, no unannounced power cut is being made.
