Power shortage imposed on the textile mills in various forms like power cuts, load shedding, ban on withdrawal of power, etc has crippled the textile industry and a large number of mills are on the verge of closure, according to the Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA).
SIMA has identified a viable proposition to tackle the power shortage. K V Srinivasan, SIMA chairman, said the State government was buying power from the independent power producers at the rate of Rs 15 a unit. If the government could pay Rs 11 a unit and ensure supply of diesel the 3500 mw captive generators lying idle with the industry could be operationalised.
He said, ”this was the only possible solution. There was little possibility of getting power from other States as the entire country has been facing power shortage. Wind and hydel sources are only seasonal.”
Srinivasan pointed out that unless the State government came out with the proposed scheme for operating the high-speed diesel generators available with the industrial units, the entire textile industry in Tamil Nadu would be driven to closure resulting in unemployment for a large number of poor people. SIMA was expecting a favourable government order on this, he said.
He said the Tamil Nadu textile industry accounted for 1/3rd of the textile size and 50% of the spinning capacity in the country, providing jobs for over 10 million people directly and indirectly and fetching foreign exchange worth Rs.30,000 crore.
He said the major reasons for such a severe shortage of power were the sudden spurt in industrial growth, sizable increase in the domestic / free power consumption, uninterrupted power supply to power intensive multi-national companies as per the MoUs signed by the government, unequal distribution of power shortage, poor implementation of any voluntary system of scheduled power shut downs, etc.
He said the fatal blow from TNEB was the recent order asking the industrial units not to draw power during the evening peak hours between 6 pm and 10 pm with a warning of disconnection in case of violation . This was in addition to the 5 to 8 hours scheduled / unscheduled load shedding.