Chennai: Claiming a revolution in the power sector in Tamil Nadu under her present regime, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday said shortages which were chronic four years ago have been completely wiped out and the state was on the verge of becoming a power surplus.
“The power sector in Tamil Nadu has witnessed a revolution in the past four years. Chronic power shortages were a legacy bequeathed to me when I assumed office in May 2011. Today we have completely eliminated power shortages and Tamil Nadu is on the verge of becoming a power surplus state,” she said. In her inaugural address at the two-day Global Investors Meet organised by the state government in Chennai, she said steps had also been taken to ensure that there would be no power scarce in the foreseeable future.
“What is more, a strong pipeline of conventional and renewable power projects has been built up and long term power supply agreements have been entered into, to ensure that the state will not be power scarce at all in the foreseeable future,” the Chief Minister said. Several projects and schemes to generate and augment power infrastructure have been initiated in the state which now has an installed capacity of 18,531 MW meeting the energy demand of about 275.50 million units average per day, the highest among all southern states, officials said.
After leading AIADMK to a landslide victory trouncing arch-rival DMK in the 2011 assembly polls, in which power cut was a major issue, Jayalalithaa had announced a slew of projects aimed at rapidly multiplying power generation and augmenting power infrastructure. Last week, Jayalalithaa had announced in the Assembly that a 4,000 MW thermal power project in Ramanthapuram at a cost of Rs 24,000 crore besides plans to augment the power transmission infrastructure in the state.
Augmenting electricity transmission she announced among other plans a 3×1500 MVA pooling sub-station in North Chennai at a cost of Rs 2,335 crore, a 2×1500 MVA sub-station in Ariyalur at a cost of Rs 2,121.45 crore. On new projects, she had said a Detailed Project Report is being prepared for the 2,000 MW Sillahalla Hydel Power Project.
Also, preliminary works are on for the 800 MW North Chennai Thermal Power Project Stage-III, 800×2 MW Uppur Thermal Power Project, 660×2 MW Udangudi Thermal Power Project, and another 660 MW thermal project at Ennore, she had added. The state government had recently signed a pact with the Adani Group for setting up a solar park in state with an outlay of Rs 4,536 crore to generate 648 MW.
PTI