TAMIL NADU - WHO SWITCHED THE LIGHTS OFF?

By Ruma Dubey

For Krishnaiyya, a small time weaver, running a small factory in Coimbatore, life looks dark and bleak and not to mention, sweltering hot. Grappling with 16 hours of power cut, his plight is similar to that of most of the small, medium and even big companies in the state of Tamil Nadu.  The state has everything – raw material, man power, capital but it does not have one thing which makes all these resources run – power.

Chennai has around 2-4 hours power cuts but the rest of the State suffers at a minimum, 16 hours of power cut. Doing day-to-day chores have become impossible so the suffering is right across – students cannot study in the night or else have to do so in candle lights, there is no good sleep, food cannot be pre-cooked and stored as fridges do not work, bathing in hot water is a luxury, earning a livelihood has been affected badly; in short life has become miserable for most in Tamil Nadu, except those in Chennai who get 20 hours power. And for now, there seems to be no solutions for the state to get out of this black hole.

Over 25,000 small and micro units have downed shutters.  And those who are continuing are doing so out of sheer will for survival. Many units in Coimbatore have now started outsourcing their work to other units in states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. The work gets done but the additional cost of outsourcing is killing. And many companies are simply losing out on customers as they are not able to keep up with the delivery dates and customers thus seem to be diverting their orders to other states like Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Kanchipuram, the legendary town of saree weavers, famous across the globe is also going through a crisis. They have 6-8 hours of power cut per day and this has cut down production dramatically. The weavers can work only when there until there is sunlight, after which, lack of power makes work under candle light impossible. With around 4000 weavers, the town is said be suffering a production loss of around 60%.

With no or little power, sales of consumer appliances have taken a hit. With no power how does one operate a washing machine, induction stoves, air conditioners, TV or microwave?  More than Chennai, in smaller towns like Tiruchi, Madurai, Tirunelveli, Sivakasi and Virudhunagar there is a 30% drop in sales value.  Yes, the sales of inverters and gensets have more than doubled in the state. For inverters, power is required to recharge but with 16 hours power cuts, inverters too are becoming redundant. Gensets are still doing well though cost of diesel has risen but there is simply no other alternative.  The cost of running a genset is estimated at Rs.17/unit. IT firms have tied up with HPCL and IOC directly for diesel supply for their offices and IT parks.

When there is one State in India undergoing such a crisis, how come instead of giving all attention to resolving this, the rest of the nation is involved in petty politics? Cash subsidy, Modi, Rehman Mallick, FDI; all seem meaningless as one State and its people suffer due to something as basic as electricity. What kind of a growth story is India weaving?

So why the power crisis? The state has an installed capacity of 10,364 MW but the power shortfall is to the tune of 4,000 MW.  It has projects to the tune of 4884 MW in the pipeline. It can buy power from other surplus states but Tamil Nadu is saying that transmission traffic is not allowing power to come to the state and wants the Center to “store” the surplus power. Jayalalitha had asked the Supreme Court to intervene and ask the Center to resolve the issue. The Center in turn is saying that Tamil Nadu is to be blamed as it had not strengthened the grid for receiving surplus power. Simply put, the grid has not been expanded to receive the available power supply.  

Many say that this is the politics of Kudankulam. Well, that too does not make too much sense as the state, for one nuclear plant, will not take such a big hit, risking losing its business to other states. Even if and when Kudankulam comes up, which could be another 6-7 months, the power generated will be around 200-500 MW. How will that resolve the crisis? Tamil Nadu was power surplus till a few years ago but it did not have the foresight to take steps to increase capacity as population rose.

There is no easy and immediate solution. Tamil Nadu has floated the largest ever tender for a solar project but that too, is not a quick fix. Wind farms need to be planned. And it needs to speed track the completion of the 4884 MW projects in the pipeline.  1950 MW worth thermal power projects have been revived though none of them have yet gone on stream. Unless projects in pipeline do not take off and start production, there is no other solution.

Yes, we also need better and more efficient consumer goods, maybe design buildings which generate wind and solar energy, make it compulsory for malls and theaters to arrange for their own power, ban large hoardings which run on electricity, convert all street lights to run on solar, increase electricity bills so that people learn to save power, make buildings which have wind towers and keep homes naturally cool and well lit… all this sounds utopian and impractical. But unless, we all do this, continuously invest in building power stations, the rest of India could become Tamil Nadu.