CHENNAI: The Southern Regional Power Committee (SRPC) will meet in Mamallapuram on July 14. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Pondicherry will participate in this conference.
A senior official told TNIE that southern states account for 27% of the country’s power consumption and even managed an all-time peak demand of 60,876 MW this April. Despite facing several challenges, the installed capacity of southern states has increased from 1,15,165 MW to 1,18,313 MW within a year.
“Sometimes, it becomes a tough task to transit power through power grid lines due to technical error. As a result of power outages during peak hours, Tamil Nadu was severely affected. In the upcoming meeting, this issue will be discussed,” he said. Another official said Kudankulam nuclear power plant has allotted 1,152 MW of power for Tamil Nadu regularly.
But every year, power generation would be suspended for two months from March for refuelling in the nuclear plant. During these months, there would be a high demand for electricity because of summer in Tamil Nadu. Therefore, the Stateowned power utility has urged the Central government to carry out the refuelling work in June and July instead of March.
TANGEDCO would request this in the meeting. He also pointed out that TANGEDCO has been paying for power grid transmission lines that were not utilised by the corporation. As a result, the power utility spent crores of rupees every year. This problem also occurred in other southern states. Even in the last meeting held at Bengaluru, though the stakeholders discussed with the Central government officials, no decision has been taken.