Scanty rainfall results in power outages, cripple districts in TN

Chennai: Despite fall in the demand for the power, the state has been witnessing severe power shortage with districts facing power cuts ranging from five to seven hours a day.

Officials of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Dis­t­ribution Corporation (Ta­n­gedco) attributed the present power crisis to the scanty rainfall and temporary snags in various the­r­mal power units.

With the rain playing hide and seek, the state’s power demand is hovering around 12,000 MW, which would normally stand at 10,000 MW during monsoon season. But the sudden outages faced by new thermal power plants in Me­ttur and North Che­nnai stage-II with a combined generation capacity of 1,800 MW did not help the matter either.

New unit in Mettur has been under repair since November 1 due to air preheater problem while two 600 MW units of the North Chennai plants were shutdown due to snags. “New units were generating aro­und 1000 MW,” an official pointed out.

As much as 1,000 MW of power from the central generating stations (CGS) is not available due to routine annual maintenance and sudden outages. The state is receiving nearly 400 MW short of its share of 1,175 MW from Neyveli power plant while 290 MW from Kalpakkam and Kaiga atomic power stations is also not available. The snag in one 500 MW unit of the Vallur thermal power plant has deprived the state of its share of 375 MW, the official said.

The official noted that the thermal power plant outages also happened at a time when the wind power has totally receded. “In few days, all thermal units which are under repair would start generation one after another,” the official said, adding that once the state start receiving widespread rain, the power demand will come down drastically.