SIMA Slam Power Cut

The Southern India Mills’ Association has deplored what it calls the unilateral announcement of 60 hours of scheduled stoppage by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board.This is in addition to the “unscheduled tripping” that has become common in the past three years, K.V. Srinivasan, chairman, SIMA, said in a release here.The textile industry accounts for 47 per cent of the high tension-connected load and nine per cent of low tension-connected load in the State.

At a recent meeting with industry associations, the Electricity Minister had sought the industry’s cooperation for a 24-hour power holiday in a week and assured them of uninterrupted supply during the remaining days, Mr. Srinivasan said. He had also promised to implement the Pune model and reimburse the variable costs incurred by the industrial units for operating the idle generators.

On the contrary, Mr. Srinivasan said, the Board had intimated the textile mills of two- hour shutdown during day and instructed them not to draw power from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily. This came on top of the 24-hour power holiday. This meant a minimum loss of 36 per cent capacity utilisation, job loss for lakhs of people and a huge loss to the textile industry. He said the industry, which was reeling under a “severe recession due to the soaring cotton price, high interest rate and high transport cost,” had to bear the brunt of a severe power shortage now.

He alleged that the Board had never distributed the power shortage “uniformly across the State.” “It is unfair on the part of the government to give the new investors preferential treatment and to sanction new connections, especially for power-intensive projects, while the State is facing such a severe power shortage.”Mr. Srinivasan said the oil companies were rationing HSD oil supply, restricting the quantity to 80 per cent of last year’s average consumption. This would keep the generators running just for 10 hours.

At the same time, he made it clear that the industry would co-operate with the government in managing the problem, “provided the government comes out with a fair and transparent policy.During the past two years, he said, the industry had been demanding that the Pune model be implemented for operating the idle-capacity furnace oil/HSD oil generators by reimbursing the additional variable cost incurred by the units. More than 3,000 MW of idle capacity was available with the industrial units, he said, and the textile mills alone had more than 1,000 MW captive power generating capacity. “Even one-third of it will bridge the gap in the supply and demand of power and enable the government to supply uninterrupted power throughout the State.”

He pleaded that the power shutdown period be restricted to 24 hours and uninterrupted supply ensured on all other days. Besides, the government should arrange for adequate supply of HSD oil for generators and reimburse the variable cost spent by the industrial units for operating the captive power plants.

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