Power supply disruptions are being reported across Tamil Nadu at multiple times of the day—morning, afternoon and night—leaving residents struggling to cope. People have demanded that the state government step in with emergency measures to stabilise distribution and address the recurring outages.
According to the report, daily electricity demand is hovering around 20,000–21,000 MW, up from about 16,000 MW during the same period last year, even after the peak summer season. Wind power generation, which averaged around 4,000 MW per day from May through last month, has dropped by about half this month, contributing to a supply gap.
With an estimated shortfall of 1,500–2,000 MW, unannounced one-hour power cuts were carried out in districts outside Chennai last week. The power utility also purchased about 3,500 MW from the electricity market to manage demand, but a shortage of around 1,000 MW is still said to persist due to reduced wind generation, leading to renewed cuts outside Chennai.
In Chennai, rising demand has reportedly caused transformers and other distribution equipment to fail due to overloading, triggering local outages. In Vannarapettai and surrounding streets, residents said power cuts had continued for a week; more than 100 people staged a road blockade near Kannan Roundtana and later surrounded a substation office on Old Jail Road before police dispersed the crowd. Similar protests were reported in areas including Vyasarapadi and around the Kilpauk–Kellys signal, with residents also complaining that complaint helplines were unreachable and officials’ contact numbers had changed.
