CHENNAI: Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Monday unveiled a massive Rs 33,066-crore Transmission Improvement Scheme to radically upgrade the state’s power infrastructure. Making the announcement under Rule 110 in the Assembly, the CM laid out plans to construct 196 new substations and lay 15,000 km of power lines across the state.
The CM also said that five ageing 210-MW power units at the Thoothukudi Thermal Station will be replaced by a new 1,600-MW supercritical thermal plant. The new plant with two units of 800 MW each would be set up under public-private partnership at the same complex at an estimated cost of Rs 20,800 crore, Vijay said.
The existing Thoothukudi Thermal Power Station has five coal-based generating units, with a combined installed capacity of 1,050 MW. The units were commissioned in phases from 1979 and have been serving the state for several decades.
The CM said that TN was a leading state in renewable energy and was focusing on wind and solar power as well as battery energy storage. However, renewable sources were not available continuously and uniformly throughout the day.
Though battery storage technology was being developed to store surplus renewable power for use during periods of high demand, the existing infrastructure may not be sufficient to meet the state’s round-the-clock electricity requirement, he said.
No investment in thermal, hydel projects for 5 yrs: CM
“Thermal power generation will therefore continue to play a key role in ensuring uninterrupted power supply, particularly during peak demand,” Vijay said. He also pointed out that Tamil Nadu had not made major investments in new thermal and hydel power projects over the past five years.
With electricity demand continuing to rise, increasing generation capacity had become essential to meet the state’s future requirements, he sai. The existing units at Thoothukudi will be replaced in phases in line with environmental regulations applicable to coal-based power stations, the CM said.
Vijay also said the existing transmission networks will be strengthened to meet the state’s growing power demand. The government will also implement a Rs 1,762-crore programme to strengthen Chennai’s electricity distribution infrastructure.
The works are aimed at improving the city’s power supply amid rising electricity consumption and frequent disruptions during the monsoon. The programme will include 36 new 33/11-kV substations and installation of new distribution transformers. Damaged and ageing cables, conductors, pillar boxes, circuit breakers and other equipment that have completed their service life will also be replaced under the programme.
Electronics, semiconductor park to come up in Kanchi
The Tamil Nadu government has announced the setting up of a semiconductor and electronics manufacturing park at Maduranthagam, Kancheepuram, a multi-modal logistics hub in Tiruchy and a digital finance centre (fintech hub) in Coimbatore