Tamil Nadu - Vellore

“Exempt power plant units from cut”

VELLORE: The BHEL Ancillary Association, Ranipet (BAAR) has urged the State government to exempt from power cut member units supplying accessories to the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Ranipet, which manufactures power plant equipment for the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) and other electricity boards in the country. It also requested the government not to increase power tariff for these industries.

In a memorandum submitted to the Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC), S. Kabilan, at a public hearing conducted by him in Chennai last week, V. Vaheesan, secretary of BAAR, said that to improve the power factor, most of the member units had switched to inverterised welding equipment from conventional equipment, investing huge amounts. The power consumption of these units had come down by 20 per cent . Other member units would also be installing such equipment shortly.

This had resulted in reduction of the power drawn from the grid, leading to substantial reduction in line losses. This had, in turn, enabled the TNEB reduce its cost of distribution. “By maintaining the power factor, we are actually helping the TNEB by facilitating a reduction in the Board’s distribution cost. Actually, we need more power to improve the delivery of power plant equipment by which the TNEB’s power station in Vallur near Chennai will start functioning at the earliest”, he said, requesting the TNEB to exempt the nearly 200 ancillary industries in Ranipet from power cut.

The association pointed out that the TNEB had imposed a 20 per cent cut on the consumption by the member units by arriving at the average power consumption on the basis of the power consumed by the ancillary industries between October 2007 and September 2008 (1,830 units a month), during which period they had installed the high-value and efficient equipment to maintain the power factor. If the average consumption was arrived at by taking into consideration the power consumed by the units between October 2006 and September 2007 (2,650 units a month), they would be eligible for more power.

The present 20 per cent power cut would badly affect the operation of the units, since they had to increase their production to meet the interest and repayment of loan they have availed of from banks to buy the equipment.

Besides, they were supplying equipment to the BHEL, Ranipet, for the power plant the latter was manufacturing for various electricity boards, including the Vallur power plant of the TNEB. Any delay on their side in supplying the equipment to BHEL would, in turn, delay the commissioning of the TNEB power plants, which in fact had to be speeded up to enable the Board to reduce or lift the general power cut. Considering these points, the BAAR requested the TNERC to advice TNEB to grant exemption to the ancillary units from the ceiling on power consumption.

The BAAR also requested the TNERC to advise the TNEB to reduce the stipulated minimum power factor to be achieved to avoid penalty from 0.85 to 0.7, since the maintenance of the power factor at a minimum of 0.85 required the installation of modern electrical equipment at huge cost.

Owing to the cost factor, the BAAR members were already engaged in installing the equipment in a phased manner, it said.

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