Tamil Nadu announces 20% power cut for industrial & commercial users

After four months of relief, the power restriction is back

The Tamil Nadu government today announced 20% power cut on industrial and commercial users. The state government has decided to bring back the compulsory power after four months.

Experts attribute this to slowdown in the wind energy supply, which helped the state administration tide over the power crisis till now.

Tamilnadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd (Tangedco) has issued an order imposing the power cut based on the increasing demand by controlling energy quota for high tension industrial and commercial consumers during non-peak hours (10 pm to 6 pm next day) and permit them to use only 10% of the demand and energy quota fixed during evening peak hours from 6 pm to 10 pm (only for lighting and security purposes). The power cut came into effect from yesterday.

This time, the burden on industrial and commercial users is less than what it was earlier. Users now face a 20% shortage as against 40% earlier.

The development comes on the backdrop of slow down in supply from the wind farms. It may be noted, compared with the national average of 12%, renewable energy accounts for 44% of the power consumption in Tamil Nadu. Of this, 90% comes from wind. Tamil Nadu has over 7,500 MW of wind generation capacity set up by private players.

The demand-supply gap in the state is estimated to be about 30% on a demand for about 12,000 MW.

While most of the big corporates are tight lipped, small and medium enterprises have said this would severely affect them, considering it will reduce the job order flow.