Power Impact

A notice put up at a photo shop in Coimbatore, which earlier functioned without any break, announces lunch time to cut down on power consumption. Domestic consumers of electricity all over the State, especially in cities and towns, seem to be better off these days than what they were a month or two ago. Complaints from agriculturists, too, are less. But, the voices of industry and commerce have become shriller, as a steep power cut is in force for high-tension industrial units and commercial establishments with effect from November 1.

K. Kathirmathiyon, secretary, Coimbatore Consumer Cause, says most of the domestic consumers in Coimbatore now face about two-and-a-half hours of power cut every day. This is a relief compared with the six-and-a-half hours of cut enforced a month ago. A. Sheik Hussain, secretary, Vishwanathapuram (Extension) Residential Welfare Association, Madurai, says: “Since November 1, power cuts are confined largely to the scheduled duration of two hours and 40 minutes.”

Residents of Tiruchi are quite relieved that they are not being subjected to supply disruptions at night, which were common not long ago. The story is more or less similar in other parts of the State with regard to the domestic consumers. However, everyone agrees that it is the industry that has suffered the worst. A 40 per cent cut has been imposed on high-tension units and commercial establishments, besides the existing restrictions during the peak hours (6 p.m. to 10 p.m.). Low-tension (LT) industrial establishments and commercial complexes, consuming more than 2,000 units in two months, should reduce consumption by 20 per cent. “Now the entire impact of power shortage is on industries,” says Jayakumar Ramdass, president of the Southern India Engineering Manufacturers’ Association, and who is based in Coimbatore. “The present system is paralysing our production. At the most, we can absorb only 10 per cent of power cut [two hours],” says Madurai District Tiny and Small Scale Industries Association secretary P. Sitaraman.

In the past 10 days, lathes and drilling and welding machines of several small and medium enterprises have fallen silent in the Ambattur and Guindy industrial estates, not by choice but because of compulsion. Workers are forced to take a break in the evening, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. While some of them go home, the other employees come back to finish their production schedule, staying up to 1 a.m.

Ironically, the power cut is threatening to aggravate the problems of the power sector in the State, if one is to go by what representatives of the fabrication sector in and around Tiruchi say. The sector, catering mainly for the giant power equipment manufacturing concerns, is in a piquant situation. The threat of laying off thousands of workers has come at a time when the industrial units, mainly HT consumers, are racing against time to fulfil the outsourcing orders of BHEL. Industry associations of the district say micro, small and medium industries making machineries, pressure parts and spares, essential for the erection, commissioning of new mega power plants and maintenance of the existing plants for full capacity utilisation, are incurring a heavy loss of manpower and machine time. It is not just the industry sector that has complaints; there are others who have some grievances.

The new system has made educational institutions to reschedule their classes. In rural areas, the problem of load shedding affects more students belonging to the weaker sections. Homes of many such students have only one bulb, says I. Umadevan, a postgraduate physics teacher of the Government Higher Secondary School, Kaniyambadi, Vellore district. While students in urban areas manage with UPS sets or emergency lamps, the parents of students in rural areas cannot afford such equipment.

The farm sector, too, has some grievances, though the government decided last month that single-phase supply in rural areas would be available for 14 hours and three-phase supply for 10 hours. Farmers in the Cauvery delta region complain that the TNEB has not kept its promise of supplying 10 hours of three-phase supply. “Though the Board had promised three-phase supply for six hours during the day and four hours during the night, we get supply only for five hours in the day and three hours in the night,” says R. Raja Chidambaram, secretary, Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangam, Perambalur.

Cauvery Delta Farmers’ Welfare Association vice-president V. Kannan, who is based at Kattumannarkoil in Cuddalore district, says that as the horticulture crops, mainly vegetables, are raised with water drawn from borewells, the power restrictions have made the water supply scarce. Manikam Ramaswami, chairman, Tamil Nadu State Council, Confederation of Indian Industry, has a solution. His formula, he says, can solve the problem by using captive generator sets, while fuel can be bought at a special rate from the State government-identified retail outlets. Unfortunately, this idea has not taken off.

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