Chennai: Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) Chairman Radhakrishnan on Tuesday said the state has sufficient electricity to meet demand and that there is no overall shortage. He alleged that power interruptions in a few locations are being portrayed as if the entire board has “failed”.
He said Tamil Nadu’s power demand is among the highest in the country, after Maharashtra, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, and that the Centre’s National Power Distribution Centre monitors the state’s supply and demand in real time.
Referring to recent outages in Chennai and other districts, he said some disruptions were caused by equipment faults and accidental damage to underground cables. In Arumbakkam, he said, a power cable was damaged during stormwater drain work, leading to a local outage.
Radhakrishnan also pointed to infrastructure constraints in rapidly densifying areas, where independent houses have been replaced by apartment blocks. In several places, he said, residents and builders do not provide space for new transformers and distribution boxes; he cited Ritherdon Road in Egmore as an example.
He added that summer months have seen outages in the past as well, noting that solar generation is not available at night and wind power can drop suddenly, creating pressure on the system. However, he said complaints are being taken up quickly and rectification work is being carried out.
