Power crisis: TN CM writes to Centre on increasing coal supply

With Tamil Nadu facing a looming power crisis, Chief Minister K Palaniswami Friday appealed to the Centre to increase the coal supply to feed the thermal stations in the state.

Unless the coal supply position is improved immediately, some of the thermal power stations would have to be shutdown leading to power outages, Palaniswami said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention.

"... the thermal power stations of the Tamil Nadu government power utility (Tangedco) have a stock sufficient only for three days," Palaniswami said.

"This coupled with the fact that the wind energy season also gets over by the middle of September has made the situation quite precarious," he said.

Pegging per day requirement at 72,000 tonnes (20 rakes) for continuous power generation, the chief minister said the state received just seven to eight rakes per day and urged Modi to instruct the coal and railway ministries to ensure this supply.

Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (Tangedco) has reporedly received the Centre's nod to import around 30 lakh tonnes of coal to meet the state's demand.