CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu’s power demand has increased by more than 3,000MW this December, compared to the same period last year. The demand has been 14,500MW in recent days, mostly owing to higher consumption in the industrial sector.
On the other hand, domestic consumption has come down in the last two months due to cool weather. Agriculture demand is also low, said Tangedco officials.
Economic growth triggers rise in power demand. “The higher consumption by industries is because of new industries setting shop in Tamil Nadu and old ones functioning to their full capacity,” said state industries secretary K Gnanadesikan.
The state has received projects worth Rs 10,000 crore through single window clearance alone in the last one year. “It is good to know that the increase in power consumption is due to industrial demand,” said Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) state president M Ponnusami.
Textile industry as well as many small and medium enterprises are active. “Depreciation of rupee against the US dollar has increased business for textile companies that are dependent on exports. Due to this, their power demand has also gone up,” said Ponnusami.
MSMEs have also become active owing to higher demand for their products and services. “New companies are slowly but definitely looking at Tamil Nadu and in the coming months more investments will be coming our way,” said Ponnusami.
On the power generation side, the discom is using imported as well as local coal to generate power from its own thermal units. “As of now, we are running our thermal units to their full capacity with local and imported coal. There is no wind power generation. Tangedco evacuated 1,540MW solar power on Monday,” said the official.
Power demand is high during morning and evening hours. “Shops also use more power these days owing to festival season. It is likely to go on like this in January also,” said the Tangedco official.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes
