Manufacturing Plants Resume Work in Tamil Nadu – Power Demand Surges

Last updated on February 13th, 2023 at 04:18 pm

As the Modi Government announced lockdown 3.0 on May 4 along with some relaxations, manufacturing plants have resumed the production across India.

People returned back to work after more than one and a half month gap across Tamil Nadu. With manufacturing units resuming the production the power demand has started to increase, according to reports.

Since March 25, when country went under first phase of lockdown, the peak power demand in Tamil Nadu was much lower than11,000 MW. This demand has surged since Wednesday as the manufacturing plants in state resumed the production.

Starting Wednesday, two wheeler manufacturing plants in Tamil Nadu, TVS Motor Company and Eicher Motors announced the production resuming with minimum staff.

Textile manufacturing unit Lakshmi Machine Works also resumed the work at their plant.

A senior TANGEDCO (Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited) official stated “We expect the peak demand to touch 12,500 MW in the coming days. The demand has been increasing in the past two days with many MSMEs and big industries restarting production.”

Tamil Nadu Power Minister P Thangamani reviewed the TANGEDCO’s preparation regarding power demands before industries resumed production.

The TANGEDCO official informed that 16.5 lakh metric tonnes of coal is available in the yards which is enough for about 23 days. The thermal units at TANGEDCO have a total capacity of 4,320 MW. He further stated that through the month of May these units would be mostly on a standby as windy season starts.

As the summer season is peaking, the domestic power demand is also expected to increase with prolonged use of air conditioners.

DISCOM officials are however relaxed as far as finances are concerned. With maximum revenue coming from industries and commercial units, as the power demand goes up with production, so will the increase in revenue collection be.

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Like other DISCOMS, TANGEDCO is also hoping for a relief package from Center. The package will be hopefully sanctioned in few days to pay off the power generators, officials said.