No irregularities in power procurement: Senthilbalaji

Addressing a press conference after reviewing the preparedness for the northeast monsoon, he said, when several states are facing power cuts due to coal shortage, Tamil Nadu was safe as they had taken all the steps.

“The power is being procured from the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), which fixes the price for each 15 minutes slot for 24 hours. Our average daily requirement is 320 MU. From September 24 to October 19, we procured 397 MU from the exchange. In the same period, Tangedco supplied 6,200 MU to the consumers. Of the 397 MU procured from the exchange, 65 MU were bought at Rs 20 per unit for our peak period requirement,” Senthilbalaji said.

The Minister added that Tangedco has increased its thermal power station’s generation from 1,800 MW in the previous AIADMK regime to 3,500 MW in the last five months. “We have long term power supply agreements with private thermal plants to supply 2,830 MW but they are supplying only about 900 MW. To bridge the gap, we have to purchase power from the spot market,” he said, adding that Gujarat, whose daily power requirement is equal to Tamil Nadu, procured 131 MU at the cost of Rs 20 per unit, while Andhra Pradesh, which has an average daily requirement of 220 MU, procured 52 MU. “When compared to other states, Tangedco has procured 1.04 per cent of the total power requirement at the price of Rs 20 per unit, which is very less,” he said.

Senthilbalaji also hit out at the BJP State president Annamalai for making baseless charges against the government over the power procurement. “A leader of a political party should know from where we are getting power and how other states are dealing with it. I challenge him to release the document to prove his allegations of irregularities in 24 hours. If not, he should apologise for it,” he said.