Tamil Nadu’s power utility has changed its leadership within two months, replacing chairman Arun Roy—appointed in July—with Rajesh Lakhani, who has previously served in the role.
Employee representatives say the state has adequate electricity availability to meet demand, but outages are continuing due to equipment failures. With heat persisting even after summer, daily power demand is averaging around 20,000 MW.
They also point to a shortfall of about 2,000 MW after supplies from central allocations and wind power dipped, leading to load cuts in districts outside Chennai.
Ahead of the northeast monsoon expected to begin later this month, engineers were instructed to complete preventive maintenance and equipment repairs by September 30. Union leaders claim the work is still incomplete and argue that the new chairman must be allowed to act independently to speed up solutions.
Citing past examples, union officials said political interference and what they described as “corporate” influence can limit decision-making even for experienced administrators. They urged the government to give Lakhani full freedom to handle monsoon and cyclone-season preparedness, as well as issues such as outages and power shortages.
