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Power crisis: PMK seeks Centre’s intervention

PUDUCHERRY: Leader of the Pattali Makkal Katchi in Parliament M.Ramadass has sought the intervention of Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde to ensure additional allocation of 70 MW of power from the Central Generating Stations (CGSs) to Puducherry.

In a letter to Mr.Shinde on Monday, he said the looming power shortage in recent times was exerting deleterious and decelerated impact on industrial development.

The demand for electricity had been escalating recently in the Union Territory, owing to faster rate of growth of the economy — on an average of 10 per cent per annum — characterised by agricultural, industrial and service sector developments, Mr.Ramadass said, adding that the rapid urbanisation, mushroom growth of small scale industries, educational and health institutions and increasing income of the people had led to a spurt in demand for electricity all over the territory. “The current estimated demand for electricity taking peak hour requirement into account is about 288 MW,” he said.

Till recently the CGSs including the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Plant at Talchar had almost met the entire demand by their uninterrupted power supply, he said. But due to shortage of lignite, NLC had a problem to supply its expected share of electricity to the Union Territory and it was supplying only 25 MW as against the normal supply of 110 MW. The NTPC had also reduced its supply to Puducherry by 20 MW, owing to shutdown for annual maintenance, he pointed out.

“Currently, without taking peak hour need into account, the requirement of electricity in the Union Territory is around 220 MW, but the availability is around 150 MW, leading to a gap of 70 MW,” he said.

The territorial government had been resorting to load shedding for the consumers in the industrial sector from June 1, he pointed out. If the Central government did not come to the rescue of the Union Territory, the situation might go out of control and it would take a long time to put the economy on the rails back, he added.

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