Much to the horror of many Tamil Nadu residents grappling to deal with the heat, many districts in Tamil Nadu plunged into darkness on April 20. This has been happening for the past few weeks — districts across Tamil Nadu have been witnessing long power cuts every day. On April 20, districts like Cuddalore, Karur, Tirupathur, Tiruvannamalai, Kanyakumari, and Theni faced power outages and fluctuations.
The unannounced power cut lasted for several hours from late evening to midnight.
Residents were irked as many had to spend their night on terraces and in front of houses waiting for the supply to resume. As summer temperatures soar high and the heat becomes unbearable, power cuts at night added woes to the people in the state.
Residents complained that the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO) officials didn’t respond despite repeated calls. Taramani resident Raghavan, 50, said the residents made several complaints through the centralised call centre. “Children and senior citizens suffered the most,” he added. Power cuts for even half an hour become unbearable during the summers, another resident of Taramani said.
Selvi, 70, a resident of Selaiyur said, “I witnessed power fluctuations and power cuts at night. I had to spend the whole night sitting in front of my house. How will we face summer like this?” she asked. “I work the night shift and with unannounced and prolonged power supply. I suffered a lot,” said Vinoth Kumar, an IT employee in Selaiyur. Despite having a three-phase connection, he hasn’t been able to use his computer.
Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S Ramadoss on Thursday, April 21, urged the government to take preventive measures against frequent power cuts. "It is the job of the electricity board to be prepared for such unexpected events and ensure uninterrupted power supply," he added in his Twitter post.
Responding to this, Tamil Nadu Power Minister V Senthil Bhalaji said that non-availability of 750 MW of power from the central generating stations to its southern states resulted in an electricity shortage.
“To overcome this, the power supply of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) was increased and steps were taken to buy power from the private sectors. Thus, the issue was resolved immediately in cities and necessary actions were taken to rectify the power outage in rural areas,” he added.
The demand for electricity is rising in the country with a soaring temperature. Adding to this India is on the verge of another coal crisis, several states including Tamil Nadu may face coal shortages leading to power outages in the coming weeks.