Chennai: The power crisis in Tamil Nadu, which had eased during June-September with around 2,000 MW of wind power generation, has again escalated, resulting in power cuts for industries and commercial establishments.
As a result, all eyes are on an early commissioning of the first unit at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP).
The KNPP, when operated at its rated capacity of 1,000 MW, would feed around 400 MW to the state grid and 600 MW to neighbouring states.
However, officials at the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corp Ltd do not rely much on possible power generation from the mega atomic power plant.
“We do not take into account the Kundankulam plant in our demand-supply calculations,” a senior official told IANS.
The Tamil Nadu government on Monday announced 20 percent power cut for high tension industries and commercial establishments. During peak hours (6pm to 10pm), the cut would be 90 percent.
“We expect around 2,000 MW of fresh thermal capacity early next year to take care of the increased demand. Further, we hope to fix the problems of transmission corridor by early 2014 to bring in around 1,000 MW from other states,” the official said preferring anonymity.
The Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL) is setting up two 1,000 MW Russian reactors at Kudankulam in Tirunelveli district, around 650 km from here.
The KNPP is India’s first pressurised water reactor belonging to the light water reactor category.
The first unit attained criticality, which is the beginning of the fission process, for the first time on July 13.
The NPCIL had earlier said it would connect the first unit to the grid end-August, generating 400 MW power. The one comforting news about the atomic power in the state is the restarting of the second unit at the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) on September 29. IANS
