Tamil Nadu power demand peaks at 12,144 MW on Saturday

Chennai: The TN Generation and Distribution Corpo­ra­ti­on (Tangedco) on Satu­rday met an all-time hi­gh demand of 12,144 MW, with four of the five new thermal units generating power. However, de­m­and, which normally surges during the summer months, recorded an all-time high demand in winter for the first time.

According to Tangedco sources, the demand was met on Saturday during the peak time at 7.50 am. The previous highest po­wer demand in the state was recorded on October 1, 2013 when it soared to 12,118 MW.

The state has been free of major power cuts si­nce December 28, 2013, as opposed to long du­r­a­tion load shedding ac­r­oss the state in the first few weeks of that month due to outages at its thermal plants and maintenance shut down of Ce­ntral generating stat­ions, a senior official said. The urban parts of the state have been free of load shedding while rural areas faced a one-hour power cut, and that too, rarely.

“Four new thermal units are generating po­wer and another in No­rth Chennai, shut down following a fire, is exp­ected to start generation tonight,” the official sa­id. The new thermal un­its have a combined cap­acity of 2,800 MW. The state will get a full quantum of power from the three units of 600 MW capacity each in Mettur and North Chennai wh­ile it will get nearly 700 MW as its share from the 1,000 MW Vallur units.

The all-time high dem­and was met with little contribution from wind power unlike previous records. “On Satu­r­day morning, wind po­wer contribution was only 468 MW as against 2,277 MW wind power out of 12,118 MW on October 1, 2013,” the official said.