Telangana: Disruption of coal supply could mean power outages in TN, Karnataka

The ongoing agitation for a separate state of Telangana could literally put the entire south of India in the dark.

Vital production of coal in Singareni Collieries have remained paralysed, affecting electricity generation and this could just be the beginning of a power shortage that threatens the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The people of Tamil Nadu, except Chennai and its suburbs, are being put through an additional half hour (besides the existing two-hour load shedding) power outage by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board.

The board attributed the additional power outage to shutdown of Ramagundam Thermal power station in Andhra Pradesh following the Telengana strike and drop in wind power generation. Chennaites, meanwhile, have been complaining that they were witnessing unscheduled power cuts for the past few days, but TNEB maintains that there is no change in one hour load shedding in Chennai and its suburbs.

The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) run 2600 MW Ramagundam plant was shut down following disruption of coal supply due to the strike by workers of Singareni Collieries in support of Telengana. The TNEB face a shortage of 780 MW as its share from the Ramagundam thermal plant.

In Karnataka, the separate statehood agitation has worsened the power crisis and the state is set to start buying power from Punjab from Saturday, Energy Minister Shobha Karandlaje has said.

"We have no option other than buying power from other states like Punjab. We will start purchasing 300 MW daily from Punjab tomorrow (Saturday) itself," Karandlaje told reporters here, about 250 km from Bengaluru.

The 'T strikes' also hit coal supply to Karnataka's two thermal plants, increasing the state's power shortage to 800 MW a day.

This has led to unscheduled power cuts in Bengaluru city and across the state for the last three days.

In the tech-hub, several areas go without power for up to four hours a day, each disruption lasting about an hour.

The tech-hub itself needs over 1,600 MW daily, according to Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) officials.