By IANS,
Chennai : Come Monday, scheduled power cuts will replace unscheduled cuts across Tamil Nadu, Arcot N. Veerasamy, the state’s electricity minister said here Friday.
The state government in consultation with the state’s industrialists has also decided to revive the staggered holiday scheme for industrial units, he said.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with industrialists here Friday, the minister said: “The state has a shortfall of around 1,000 MW per day. The generation from hydel power stations and windmills has gone down. Similarly the share of power from the central pool too has come down by 40 percent.”
According to him, the government will divide the state into six regions and the industrial units will stagger their weekly holidays from Monday to Sunday.
State capital Chennai and other major cities like Coimbatore, Madurai and Trichy will experience one hour blackout daily and other cities and towns will suffer two hour power cuts.
For agriculture, power will be supplied for six hours daily for five days in a week and for four hours for the remaining two days.
“With these actions, the state can manage the daily shortfall,” Veerasamy said.
The industrial units will be eligible for exemptions from paying value added tax (VAT) on the purchase of oil for generators.
The total generating capacity available to Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) is around 10,122 MW comprising 5,597 MW from TNEB’s own generating stations, 1,154 MW from private sector power plants, 2,861 MW as share from central sector generating stations, external assistance of 335 MW and 175 MW from others (captive power plants).
Apart from this, a total capacity of 3,693 MW is available from wind turbines in the private sector, 451.6 MW from co-generation plants and 104.85 MW from biomass plants.