Following several representations from the Tamil Nadu Government and political parties seeking either the entire power or additional power from the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) for the State, the Centre has allocated an additional 100 MW from the first unit to Tamil Nadu.
Based on a letter from the Ministry of Power to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), an official communication had been sent to all top officials of the Southern State power utilities by the end of August.
In the communication, the CEA had stated that Tamil Nadu would get 100 MW additionally from the 1,000 MW Unit 1 of Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant . Earlier, the Union Government had allocated 462.5 MW for Tamil Nadu from the first unit. The official communique also said that the State would get 562.5 MW power from the date of commercial operation to be declared by Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant .
Till commercial operation, Tamil Nadu will be supplied 544.1 MW from Unit 1, the communique added. According to the CEA order, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry will get 249.5 MW, 150.2 MW and 37.8 MW respectively from Unit I from the date of commercial operation to be declared.
However, prior to commercial operation, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry would get 544.1 MW, 260 MW, 156.5 MW and 39.4 MW respectively.
Based on an order issued in 2004, power allocation was earlier fixed at 462.5 MW for Tamil Nadu, 221 MW for Karnataka, 133 for Kerala and 33.5 MW for Puducherry from unit 1 of Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant .
As Tamil Nadu was affected by acute power crisis, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in March seeking entire 1000 MW power allocation from Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant
However, five months later, the Union government has allocated only 100 MW additionally to Tamil Nadu.
The State’s power managers said that the Central government had allocated the 100 MW from the 150 MW unallocated share from Unit 1. “We expected that the Union government would allocate the entire 150 MW to Tamil Nadu, but they did not do so. While the Madras (Kalpakkam) atomic power plant is supplying 74.4 per cent of power to Tamil Nadu, we expected that the same formula would apply in this case. But the Centre did not consider the plea,” said officials.