COIMBATORE: Unannounced power cuts over the past three days have severely disrupted industrial production in Coimbatore, with thousands of small and micro industrial units reporting damage to raw materials, tools and machinery spare parts. Local industrial sources pegged the cumulative loss due to production disruptions and material damage in three days at nearly `30 crore.
Industrialists said unscheduled outages, which were limited to one or two a day over the past month, have now increased to between seven and 10 interruptions daily.
Industrial sources said a minimum operating loss of Rs 2,000 per machine per day is incurred due to raw material wastage and damage to machinery and spare parts. A unit operating five machines, therefore, incurs losses of at least Rs 10,000 per day. MSMEs in Coimbatore collectively incur a minimum loss of Rs 10 crore per day due to such disruptions, they added.
J James, president of Tamil Nadu Association of Cottage and Micro Enterprises (TACT), said around 50,000 small and micro industrial units in Coimbatore operate on a job-order basis. Though power shortages have affected consumers and industrialists across Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore had remained relatively less affected until recently, he said.
“Ministers and the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) had claimed that the power shortage issue had been resolved. However, over the past two days, unannounced cuts through certain substations have occurred more than 10 times a day,” James said.
‘Overloading of local transformers may have caused power disruption’
James also added that some other substations have imposed outages lasting one to two hours. Calling the situation a “heavy blow” to industrialists, he said units were already struggling with higher fixed electricity charges and tariffs, rising raw material costs, labour shortages and increased wages for migrant workers.
“Machines come to a sudden halt during unannounced cuts, damaging spare parts in automatic machines and expensive tools. If there is a genuine shortage and difficulty in supply, the electricity board should announce affected areas in advance so industrialists can protect their machines, spare parts and tools. The government must take emergency measures to shield Coimbatore from these outages,” James said.
S Sivakaleeswaran, who runs an engineering unit in Irugur, said his locality had faced seven to eight power cuts daily for the past three days.
“Sudden interruptions force a change in the job setting, leading to wastage of the material being processed. When brass or MS iron is spoiled, the cost is high. Brass currently costs more than Rs 1,000 per kg. Tool breakage due to power failures has become a major burden. In conventional lathe machines, soft spare parts cost around Rs 4,000 to replace, and this has happened twice in three days,” he said. He said he employs seven workers and pays them Rs 1,300 per shift. “Even when there is no production due to frequent power cuts, I still have to pay their wages,” he added.
P Markandan, who runs a small engineering unit in Peelamedu, said the frequent interruptions were causing both production losses and material wastage.
Denying any power shortage, a senior TNPDCL official said disruptions sometimes occurred due to excessive overloading of local transformers. The increased load places additional stress on the control fuses that regulate the flow of electricity, causing them to fail or trip and resulting in power interruptions in some areas.
