At
present Tamilnadu is facing acute shortage of power supply. The state
government is taking various steps to end the power cut in the state. Indications
are that in another 6 months time the state will be in a position to do away
with power cuts and ensure the availability of adequate electricity for
agricultural, industrial, commercial and domestic needs. It has
to be borne in mind that in 2005, Tamilnadu was one of the few Indian states
with surplus electricity generation capacity, enabling
the electricity authority to sell it to neighbouring states of Andra Pradesh
& Karnataka. But in 2011 the situation was completely different and power
cut has caused untold sufferings to the people, particularly to the industrial
sector. At present there is shortfall in the supply of electricity in the
state. The demand-availability gap is 3000 to 4000 megawatt. While the demand
for electricity has gone up significantly, power generation has not kept pace
with the demand. Tamilnadu has been embarking on ambitious plan of rapid
industrialisation and economic development, which depends to a larger extent on
the supply and availability of electricity. Tamilnadu now has a widely
diversified base of industry and an increased domestic production of a wide
range of goods and services. Many
manufacturing companies have come up in the state, especially in Chennai,
Coimbatore, Thiruvallur, Kancheevaram, Salem, Thirupattur and Trichy districts,
which raised the demand for electricity enormously. Moreover, thousands of Medium, Small and
Micro enterprises have come up all over
the state thereby causing substantial rise in demand. Recently many
multinational companies have chosen Tamilnadu for establishing, especially
Chennai and its surroundings for establishing manufacturing and assembling
units besides for locating their offices
that has also led to huge increase in
demand for power. Moreover, Chennai has emerged as one of the largest
destinations for IT as well as IT
enabled industries, which require huge quantity of uninterrupted supply of
power. There has been large increase in demand for electricity due to rapid
growth of commercial establishments, particularly in Chennai and other big
cities. Recently, the state has witnessed the establishment of so many
commercial complexes, shopping malls, departmental stores, hyper stores, which
use vast quantity of electricity for lighting and air-conditioning purposes.
Similarly, hundreds of thousands of shops and other establishments in wholesale
and retail trading has come up all over the state. Moreover, the state has witnessed the
establishment of numerous educational institutions, which also led to huge
increase in demand for power supply. Likewise
there has been phenomenal increase in the use of electricity for domestic
purposes. Recent data show that there is growing domestic use of electricity
due to accessibility to more and modern
domestic appliances and gadgets such
fans, air conditioners, air coolers, pump sets, mixer-grinders, wet-grinders, iron boxes, washing machines, TVs, stereo
sets, cell phones and so on. It has also resulted in enormous
increase in demand for electricity in the state. Consequently, the total demand has climbed steeply. Contd….
Contn….Thus,
the demand for electricity has climbed steeply and reached 11,000 MW in 2011;
but concerted efforts were not taken during 2006-11 to increase power
generation capacity. As a result, at present
but the supply is around 7000 to 8000 MW from all sources. The demand
availability gap is 3000 to 4,000 MW. Moreover, consumption is set to rise
dramatically over the next few years for industrial, commercial, agricultural
and domestic needs. It is estimated that by 2015 Tamilnadu will require more
than 15000 KW of electricity and by 2025 the total demand for electricity will
be around 30000 KW. According to Vision 2023 document, Tamilnadu will add
30000MW by the end of the Vision period (2023)—20000 MW through new thermal
generation capacity and 1000 MW through incremental renewable capacity
(including 5000 MW through solar power). It seems that the Tamilnadu government
is very serious to end power cut in the state. Taking into account the overall
requirements and possibilities of augmenting power supply, the Tamil Nadu
government on Saturday unveiled a new solar energy policy, envisaging generation
of over 3,000 MW of power, exclusively from solar
power, in the next three years. Christened as 'Tamil Nadu Solar Energy Policy
2012,' the new initiative of the government, with a slew of encouraging
features, finds opportunity in the rapidly declining solar power costs and aims
at tapping at least 1,000 MW through solar power annually in the power-starved
state. The intention of the new solar energy policy is to “make solar energy a
people's movement just as it did earlier in the case of rainwater harvesting.” Electricity
comes from many sources. Although numerous sources exist, the primary ones
include coal, natural gas, hydroelectric, petroleum, nuclear power, wind power
and solar energy. These energy resources fall into two main categories, often
called renewable and non-renewable energy resources. The difference between
renewable energy used for electricity and nonrenewable energy consists of the
infinite amount of available renewable energy.
Although wind power is the main source of renewable energy, its supply
is unsteady and erratic. Solar energy
remains the most potent source of renewable since the available amount remains
infinite. Therefore, the Tamilnadu government has taken the right decision to
encourage the generation of solar power on a large scale. If effective measures are undertaken, solar power
has great potential to solve the power supply problem in Tamilnadu in the
coming years, nay decades!
Dr.C.Murukadas,
The Times of India, Oct., 2012
Colleges
told to meet 6% of needs through solar energy
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