Interim budget 2016-17: Tamil Nadu now power'ful

Chennai: After reeling under power shortage for the past four years, finance minister O. Pannerselvam on Tuesday announced that the state has become power surplus thanks to Chief Minister’s deft handling of the energy crisis.

“It was only due to her deft handling of the energy crisis faced by the state in 2011, we are today an energy surplus state and power deficit is a thing of the past,” he told the Assembly while presenting the interim budget for the year 2016-17.

Pointing out that when the AIADMK government assumed charge in May 2011, power cuts were causing severe hardship to industry as well as the public, he said the Chief Minister made it her mission to make the state a power surplus and the mission has been accomplished. He said that the total installed capacity of the state as on December 31, 2015 is 26,806.5 MW, out of which 4,455.5 MW has been added to the grid by commissioning new power projects and 3,030 MW through medium and long term power purchase agreements in the last five years. He noted that the capacity addition has helped the state achieve an all-time high peak energy consumption of 303.04 million units was met on July 8, 2015.

“The annual per capita consumption of energy has also gone up from 1,040 units in 2010-2011 to 1,228 units in 2014-2015,” he said.

To ensure that the state continues to remain power surplus, Mr Pannerselvam said the government has commenced work on 660 MW Ennore Expansion Power Project, 1320 MW Ennore SEZ Power Project and 800 MW NCTPS Stage-III Power Project. Action has been initiated to establish new projects such as 1600 MW Uppur Thermal Power Project and 4000 MW Kadaladi Thermal Power Project in Ramanathapuram, 1320 MW Udangudi thermal power project in Tuticorin, 660 MW Ennore replacement thermal power project, 500 MW Kundah pumped storage hydro power project and 2000 MW Sillahalla hydroelectric project, he said.

In this budget, he said Rs.13,819.03 crore has been provided to the power sector, including Rs.7,370.33 crore for tariff subsidy, Rs.2,000 crore as share capital assistance and Rs.1,483 crore as loan support. “Since May 2011, this government has also provided Rs.15,111.74 crore as equity share capital assistance and Rs.9,694.26 crore as loan,” he noted.