AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Sunday slammed the TVK-led Tamil Nadu government over frequent "unannounced power cuts" across the state.
The former chief minister urged the government to act immediately on a war footing to resolve the crisis.
Palaniswami highlighted the severe hardships being faced by the public due to erratic power supply during the peak of summer.
"It is a well-known fact that electricity demand spikes in Tamil Nadu with the onset of the summer season.
Domestic power consumption increases during the day, while industrial power requirements also rise simultaneously," the former Chief Minister said in a statement.
He noted that during the AIADMK regime, proactive precautionary measures were routinely taken every year ahead of summer to effectively manage the surging electricity demand.
Recalling the earlier AIADMK administration's track record, Palaniswami stated that when late CM J Jayalalithaa assumed office in 2011, the state was reeling under severe power outages lasting over 10 hours daily.
However, within two to three years, her governance successfully turned the situation around, making Tamil Nadu a power-surplus state, he added.
The AIADMK chief further explained that previous governments ensured uninterrupted power supply to the public by accurately calculating the additional summer demand, boosting production across wind, solar, and thermal power stations, and procuring electricity on a short-term contract basis from the Central government and private power producers.
Palaniswami urged the current administration to acknowledge the public distress caused by the "unannounced outages" and initiate immediate, war-footing measures to ensure stable power supply across the state.
(With inputs from PTI)