TNEB sells surplus power to other states

Chennai, June 27: The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) earned Rs 273 crore by selling surplus power to other states last year, compared to Rs 85 crore in the previous year, and expected to earn double the amount this year.

Claiming that Tamil Nadu was one among the few states to have surplus power, the TNEB officials here today, said as against its requirement of 8,500 MW, the installed capacity was 10,098 MW.

According to the data given by the officials, the surplus power, usually between 0600 hrs and 0900 hrs was being sold to Maharashtra and Punjab at Rs 5.02 per unit.

Besides this, the TNEB had already entered into a barter deal with the Electricity Board of Haryana. Under the deal, TNEB would purchase about 300 MW from Haryana between February and May. The TNEB would supply back 105 per cent of power in the four subsequent months, when generation of wind power would go up due to windy conditions in the southern districts of the state, the officials said.

Stating that Tamil Nadu would never face problem of power availability, they said the state had about 260 MW of captive generation capacity (including co-generation units of sugar mills) and these were the only units registered with TNEB for sale of surplus power.

However, Tamil Nadu had about 3,500 MW of unregistered captive power, the small-sized gensets that small factories, apartment buildings and office complexes have, they added.

UNI