The Dark State of Power in Tamil Nadu

Hi Guys,

The power situation in Tamil Nadu has gone crazy.

I was speaking with my friend Vimal and he was asking whether I’m planning to write any more posts on the same as I have already written four posts. He said that each time I say power shedding is bad, it becomes worse.

One of the pictures published in The Hindu Newspaper

 The last time I wrote was on April 21, 2012. It was titled Frustration at its Peak – 10 hours of Power cut per day! I finished the post optimistically writing that the power situation can’t worsen and I hope not to write about 12 or 14 hour power cut. But, sadly I have to write about 14 hour power shedding.

Last week I was in Madurai and the way power shedding is done is absurd. There is no schedule, no announcement and you don’t know when power is there and when power is not there. The inventors don’t enough power to get charged up. This is the situation of all the cities in Tamil Nadu, except Chennai.

Government has been largely ineffective. This government blames the previous government. Then, they blamed the previous government (which is the current one). They said that there were no steps taken from early 2000s and they never took any steps to build power stations and neither is Government taking any steps to rectify the situation. And no one knows why Chennai is excluded from this list and faces just 1 hour power cut. With the huge power consumption, an increase by another 1 hour could relieve the state in some way.

It has people in all walks of life. With the monsoon approaching and mosquito menace increasing, sleep is completely lost with the alternate 1 hour power shedding in night. All the businesses are completely affected. People don’t know what to do. Small scale businesses can’t afford for generators. Students are affected and they are not able to study.

Everyone is complaining. Media is covering to certain extent. They are too tired of writing the same thing for 4-5 years with increasing time duration of power shedding (me too!!!). The number of sarcastic comedies in Facebook about the power situation has been on a rise. And Government is with an attitude of ‘Who Cares?.

What is the Solution? Will the situation reverse? God only knows.

Happy Reading!!!

Frustration at its peak - 10 hours of power cut per day!

Hi Guys,

Of late I have not been able to do anything properly due to the heavy power cut that we face here at Tamil Nadu. 9 am – 12 pm, 3 pm – 6 pm, 7-8 pm, 10-11 pm, 1-2 am and 4-5 am – this is the power cut schedule for a day – totally 10 hours. Even the inverter’s battery does not get enough time to recharge itself.

Earlier, I have written three posts namely Horrible Power cuts (April 24, 2010), Dreadful Powercuts (May 26, 2010) and Power Shedding – An Integral Part of Life in Tamil Nadu (April 21, 2011). Wow, the last post was exactly a year ago – an unexpected coincidence.

At least then the power cuts were for 3-4 hours, but now it is totally worse. Thinking about the power cut situation, this scheduled and unscheduled power cuts started just before I started BE. Now I am going to complete BE and now the situation is rather worse. The power generation should have been increased but it has remained same all the way and the planning has also been poor. The parties blame each other for the situation and the fact is that neither has taken real step towards improving the situation.

A banner held during a protest

 Now, the situation looks quite promising. Kudankulam Nuclear power plant is all set to open in 45 days which will lead to production of 1000 MW (the deficiency is around 4000 MW). Some more thermal power plants are also under construction. Hoping that they get completed soon, the deficiency would decrease. But then, apart from that there is no future plan which is again very dangerous. The usage would be increasing all along.

Some of the businesses have been profited due to the power cuts. Inverter and battery sales have been on a high and the demand is so much there. Some of the entertainment sectors such as theatres, food centers, and restaurants have been benefited too. People come here in order to avoid the power cuts.

Students studying in lamp light during power cut

What exactly do people expect now? Steps should be taken towards Renewable power sources, particularly power generation from solar energy (like the 600 MW Park that has been opened at Gujarat). Most importantly, people expect that Chennai should have more power cuts, currently they face 2 hours only. By increasing it to 3 or 4 hours, at least the other cities would get enough power, so that at least the people would be getting enough power during sleeping hours (10 pm – 6 am).

Personally what do I expect? Each time I have written similar posts I have hoped that the situation would be better in the next season. But it has only worsened. I think it can’t worsen beyond 10 hours and I hope I don’t write a 12 or 14 hour power cut next time.

Happy Reading!!!

Power Shedding - An integral part of life in Tamil Nadu!

Hi Guys,

I was reading the post Horrible Power cuts that I wrote just about a year ago (24-4-10). It seems the situation was much better then, than how it is now. These days there are nearly 3-4 power cuts each day. One announced 3 hour power shedding and many other surprise power cuts. The total amount of power shedding sums up to nearly 4 hours per day.

Government is taking no steps for improving the situation. Power cuts have become an integral part of life in Tamil Nadu. The duration of power shedding has been constantly increasing over the years. In the recent election manifestos, both the leading parties of the state announced a big list of freebies. The astonishing list included Grinder, Laptop, free land and many other things (I can’t remember). But neither of the parties promised to improve the state of power in the state. Did they fail to remember about the power shedding, as there is no power shedding in Chennai. It is another mystery, why they are not willing to carry out power shedding in Chennai.

As I read the previous post I wrote on Power cuts, I remembered about the Koodankulam Nuclear Project. Does anybody know what happened to the project? I have not seen any media coverage about the project these days. Earlier, they used to write about it, at least giving a clue of the state of the project. Is it still being constructed? Hope the project is still going on.

Earlier there used to be media coverage about the issue. Newspapers and magazines used to publish articles criticizing the government for taking no efforts and would make some suggestions to the government for improving the situation. These days they don’t even care about it (one reason maybe that both people and government didn’t even care about it).

It is such a shock to see that no one is opposing the increased power shedding for over a year or so. One plausible reason is that they have started to accept it and believes that nothing can be done to improve the state of power.

Wake Up, People!

Happy Reading!!!