CHENNAI: Reducing power-purchase cost and devising plans to meet growing demand will be the major tasks for Tangedco in 2023, said S Nagalsamy, former member of Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission.
He said that as a result of the tariff revision, the utility’s income would increase. Nonetheless, it spent nearly Rs 45,000 crore a year on power purchases. Though it was not possible to cut this cost immediately, Tangedco could save money by rejecting tenders that failed to fulfil norms. For instance, he said, bidders for Tangedco’s long-term power purchases must fix a price per unit every year. A few agreements (2014-2029), however, did not follow this norm, but Tangedco still approved them, resulting in losses.
On pre-planning and materials, Nagalsamy said that during summer, Tangedco relied on the central power grid to meet demand, shelling out extra money from its coffers. To prevent this haemorrhage of funds, the corporation needed to increase its own generation capacity.
R Muralikrishnan, state organisation secretary of BMS (the electricity wing), told TNIE that another major issue was manpower shortage. In the name of administrative reforms, Tangedco decided to abolish posts such as superintendent and junior assistant without discussing it with unions. On the other hand, the Centre had instructed Tangedco to complete works under the revamped distribution sector scheme by 2026. He wondered how Tangedco would be able to do this without enough staff.
A senior Tangedco officer told TNIE that though TN government had made a budgetary allocation of Rs 13,108 crore in the current financial year towards taking over 100% of the losses incurred by Tangedco in 2021-22, there was an improvement in utility’s financial position. He added that 800MW will be added to North Chennai Thermal Power Station by March and this would reduce Tangedco’s dependence on central grid.