TN to withdraw power restrictions

The Tamil Nadu government has said it would withdraw power restrictions from May 10. The government has imposed a 40 per cent power cut on high tension (HT) industrial units and commercial establishments and 20 per cent on low-tension (LT) current transformer service connections coupled with peak hour restrictions since October last year.

Speaking to reporters today after launching Areva T&D India manufacturing plant at Paddapai, near Chennai, Arcot N Veerawamy, state electricity minister, said the government would withdraw the earlier announcement from May 10 since the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) is expecting to add 1,500 Mw through wind energy in May and 2,000 Mw by June/July.

According to official statistics, in February the peak demand was 10,461 Mw as against a production was 8,595 Mw.

The state government also officially confirmed on Tuesday that in 2008-09, the TNEB would incur a loss of around Rs 6,000 crore.