Conspiracy to scuttle Tamil Nadu's efforts to end power cut

In the past two decades there has been tremendous increase in demand for electricity for domestic, commercial, agricultural, industrial and other purposes in Tamilnadu. Nevertheless, in 2004-05, Tamil Nadu was one of the few Indian States with surplus electricity generation capacity, enabling the electricity authority to sell it to States of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. But in 2011, the situation was completely different and power cut caused untold sufferings to the people.  In fact, in the past few years, Tamil Nadu has been facing been facing acute shortage of power supply. The demand for electricity climbed steeply and reached 11,000 to 11,500 MW in 2011. But no worthwhile efforts were made during 2006-11 to augment power generation capacity.  For instance, during the period from 2005-06 to 2010-11, a generation capacity of only 206 MW has been added to the grid.  But during the year 2011-12, a capacity of 127.5 MW has been added to the State grid. During 2012-13 the generation capacity has increase substantially due to the efforts taken by the Government under the dynamic leadership of Tamilnadu.

In order to find a way out of the shortage of power, the State Government approached the Central government for support. But the Central Government not only remained mute to the demand for higher allocation of power from central grid, but also failed to provide adequate facilities for bringing power from surplus States and private power producers, citing lack of transmission route to bring power to Tamil Nadu. The Centre did not agree to the request to supply the power generated by the centrally-funded power stations in the State, including that from the shortly to be commissioned Kudankulam nuclear power plant, as an interim arrangement.  Moreover, for reasons best known to it, the Centre flatly refused to supply the excess power of 1,491 MW proposed to be surrendered by Delhi. For instance, the power transmitted from Tamil Nadu to other States from the centrally funded power plants could have been diverted to the State grid and instead, the surplus power from Delhi could have been supplied to Karnataka or other States.

Recently, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J.Jayalalithaa has assured that soon Tamil Nadu will become an electricity surplus state. The Chief Minister said: “Last year, when I said Tamil Nadu will become power surplus, everyone laughed at us. Today, we have achieved 99 per cent of the target. Very soon, Tamil Nadu will be power surplus. There is no power cut for MSMEs. For high tension consumers, the power cut during the peak hours has been slashed from 40 per cent to 20 per cent.” Taking into account the spate of schemes being implemented to augment power generation in the State, in all possibility Tamil Nadu will become a power surplus state by 2015.

The statement released by the Chief Minister yesterday, one could infer that there is a conspiracy to scuttle the efforts of Tamil Nadu government to end power cut completely by the end of this year and make it power surplus State soon. Everybody knows that the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu is one who hardly ever makes falls allegations and exaggerated statements. Simultaneous poor performance by the Central PSUs causing shortfall in power supply is rather incomprehensible. According to  Tamilnadu Chief Minister: “It appears to be a very strange coincidence that while all the existing 12 thermal units of Tangendco are generating up to full capacity, the central generating stations and the joint venture unit are all performing dismally, simultaneously. This has resulted in widespread load shedding again in the state, which was free from load shedding till the first fortnight of November, 2013.” Thus the continued poor performance by Central Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), resulting in a shortfall in power supply, makes us to believe that there is  a “concerted conspiracy.”

Therefore, the people of Tamilnadu are quite agitated about the disruptive attitude of the Centre. The attitude and actions of the central government are condemnable. It is the constitutional duty of the Prime Minister of India and the Cabinet headed by him to intervene strongly in case of a crisis in any state. But it is unconstitutional and unreasonable to deliberately cutting production at central power generating stations at around 2,500 Mw and deprive Tami Nadu its legitimate share of supply of energy from central sector. The Prime Minister should rise above partisan attitude and take necessary steps to rectify the wrong step.

 Anyway, the Tamil Nadu government is very serious to end power cut in the State.  Taking stock of the overall situation, it is believed that there will be marked improvement in power supply by the end of 2013 and that there will be an end to power cut and make it a power surplus state by the end of 2014. 
Dr.C.Murukadas, Business Standard, 27th November, 2013