“In principle” nod for unbundling of TNEB (Into Three Groups)

T. Ramakrishnan
Load shedding duration in areas other than Chennai extended
CHENNAI: The State government has given “in principle approval” to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB)’s proposal for re-organising the Board into a holding company and two subsidiary companies.

An order, issued by the Energy department on Wednesday, stated that the holding company would be called the TNEB Limited and the subsidiaries would be known as the Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation Limited (TANTRANSCO) and the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO). All the companies would be fully owned by the Government.

The order said that a steering committee headed by Principal Secretary (Energy) will be constituted. The committee, comprising TNEB chairman and Principal Secretary (Finance) or his nominee, would finalise a scheme of transfer of assets and liabilities to the proposed entities in six months.

It would submit the proposed scheme to the government for approval and notification.

On notification of the transfer scheme, the Board’s re-organisation would take effect.

Source says the government has sought time for extension of the deadline to restructure the Board, pending the completion of the work by the committee. [The present deadline expired on Thursday].

Three groups
The duration of disruption in power supply in areas other than Chennai would be four hours between 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., instead of three hours. All the consumers will be divided into three groups against the existing system of four groups. This would be apart from the existing arrangement of disruption in supply for one hour during evening peak hours (6 p.m.-9 p.m.) and for one and half hours from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. In effect, the total hours of shut down would be six and half hours, instead of five hours now.

The circular has stated that if adequate relief is obtained owing to evening peak-hour restrictions that are placed on all consumers belonging to high tension (HT) category, except water supply systems, hospitals, milk chilling plants and continuous process industries, the one-hour power cut during 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. will be reviewed.

During the lighting peak hours, welding sets should not draw power.

Source : The Hindu