Remote hilly villages to get power supply for first time in Tamil Nadu
Solar plants to ensure minimum of lighting and charging.
Chennai: Soon 115 villages in remote forest areas in the state will get the electricity supply for the first time to ‘light up’ their huts through solar power.
Though Tamil Nadu has achieved 100 per cent electrification of villages in 1992, there are habitations located in remote areas, where conventional power supply is not feasible, had remained un-electrified.
“The 115 remote villages in hilly forest areas had remained without power supply as these areas remained out of bounds of the power grid. Hence, we have decided to provide power supply through solar plants to ensure minimum of lighting and charging of mobiles,” a senior Tangedco official said.
As per the proposal, 5,787 households in remote areas in 12 districts would be provided with power supply with battery back up to light three LED bulbs with four watts capacity each for six hours a day and a point to charge mobile phones, a senior Tangedco official said.
“We have awarded contract to three firms to execute the Rs 7 crore
project. Due to the elections, the works could not be commenced. Now the works are underway and it would be executed in coming months,” he said.
A centralised solar plant with battery back up would be installed in the villages to supply power to the houses, the official said.
The 115 habitations located in Theni, Madurai, Dindigul, Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Nilgiris, Salem, Erode, Vellore and Dharmapuri districts would be electrified. By providing off-grid solar power supply to the remote villages, the Tangedco would not get any revenue out of it, the official said, adding that the Tangedco would avail the carbon credit for reducing carbon emissions through the clean development mechanism for the revenue.
As per the Census 2011, about 1.72 crore households in Tamil Nadu use electricity for lighting purpose as against the total number of households of 1.84 crore. About 81,962 households in the state don’t have electricity or kerosene or other lighting sources.