CHENNAI: The government will undertake a number of projects to upgrade the facilities and improve the maintenance of existing power generation facilities during the current financial year, even as it expedites projects to expand installed capacity.
Speaking in the Assembly on the reply to cut motions to the demand for grant of the Energy Department, Electricity, Prohibition and Excise Minister Natham R Viswanathan said the power demand, which was 13,000-13,500 MW at the beginning of the fiscal, is expected to go up to 14,500 MW by the end of 2014-15. He also said Tamil Nadu had touched its all-time peak in consumption, when it consumed 293.97 million units on June 24.
Viswanathan informed the House that the AIADMK government had added a total of 2792.5 MW in installed capacity since it took charge in 2011, against the 206.2 MW added in the previous five years under the DMK rule.
Tamil Nadu has also had to face issues with supply of coal, and had had to import 58.06 lakh tonnes as it had received only 125.69 lakh tonnes of the contractual 179.4 lakh tonnes. The power purchase scenario is also set to improve in the coming months, the minister said in his policy note of the Energy Department, tabled in the House.
The AIADMK government has so far signed long-term power purchase agreements for 3,300 MW, of which Tamil Nadu is already receiving 224 MW and would start receiving 1,500 MW from August, and the rest from 2015-16. The government informed the House that power projects with a combined capacity of 16,420 MW are in the pipeline at various stages of development, of which most are expected to be completed by 2020.