In the past two decades or so there has been tremendous
increase in the demand for power in Tamil Nadu. Due to the efforts taken by the
present government under the dynamic leadership of Chief Minister Selvi
J.Jayalalithaa, the State has been able to tide over power crisis to a larger extent,
despite the uncooperative attitude of the Central Government. The rise in
demand for power is due to various factors. Tamil Nadu 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, Kanchipuram, 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. 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. Moreover, the demand for power for agricultural
purpose also has shown tremendous increase. As a result, Tamil Nadu has been
often witnessing shortage in the supply of power.
Nevertheless, the Tamil Nadu
government under the dynamic leadership of Chief Minister Selvi J.Jayalalithaa
has been taking very serious efforts to
augment power supply and thereby bridge demand supply gap. There is marked
improvement in power supply and it is reported that there will be an end to
power cut by the middle of 2014.
It has to be borne in mind that 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. During 2001-2006 a total of 2500 MW was added to the
state grid. But 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 mere 206 MW has been
added to the grid. But during 2011-13, a
capacity of 2500 MW has been added to the State grid. Moreover, as a measure of
caution the government has also entered into power purchase agreements with
companies in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Maharashtra for provision of
2,158 MW, besides small power producers in the state.
Moreover, recently, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister
has assured that soon Tamil Nadu will become an electricity surplus state.
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 the end of 2014. Taking into consideration a long perspective
on the power front, according to the Vision Tamil Nadu 2023 document, Tamil
Nadu will add 30000 MW of electricity by 2023. The estimated
total investment for achieving the target is Rs. 4.5 lakh crores, out of the
total investment of Rs.15 lakh crores in infrastructure development during the
Vision period. Investment for new capacity addition for Tamil Nadu located
within the State or elsewhere, will account for the bulk of the investments
(Rs.2.8 lakh crores). As per the prediction made in the Vision document, in the long
run, “Tamil Nadu will have sufficient power generation capacity that is owned
or secured under long term contracts that becomes the bedrock of an efficient
and competitive economy.”
The Times of India, February 4,2014
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