TN govt gears up to fight power woes

Tamil Nadu is making serious efforts to leave its dark days behind. Faced with an annual 4,000-MW power shortage, the government is now fast tracking power generation projects to tide over the crisis, reports CNBC-TV18’s Swathi Narayanan. 

Power cuts of 2-4 hours in Chennai, extending up to 10-12 hours in other areas. Industry is lying powerless in Tamil Nadu. But things could change for the better soon with the state government ensuring that a slew of power projects take off this year. The government is working towards commisioning the controversial Koodankulam nuclear power plant in two months. This will add around 460 MW by June. The joint venture of NTPC and the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) has also taken off which has a capacity of 500 MW. Two North Chennai projects with a capacity of 600 MW each will be commissioned by June and October respectively. Also, a 600 MW project in Mettur will begin generation by June 2012 If these projects coupled with a few more in the pipeline take off the state can fulfill its aim of adding an additional capacity of 4,500 MW this year. Enough to make up for the 4000 MW shoratge of power that it is currently facing “We are looking at 4500 MW of new capacity addition with this year and some of them are in very advance stages.” said Rajeev Ranjan, chairman, TNEB Ranjan further says, the plan is to look at investments of Rs 4.5 lakh crore coming in energy sector. This will basically comprise of adding more generation capacity. We are looking at 20,000 MW of thermal capacity to be added. In addition we are looking at 10,000 MW of renewable energy In addition, Tamil Nadu is also looking to attract an investment of Rs 2 lakh crore in the transmission and distribution space as well. Tamil Nadu over the years has emerged as a manufacturing hub, but its industrial image has suffered considerably due to the power crisis. Fast tracking power projects will go a long way in re-assuring investors about the potential of the state. But even if all goes according to plan till June this year at least, the state will continue to face the heat of massive power cuts.