TNEB earns Rs 273 cr selling surplus power

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Electricity Board earned Rs 273 crore last year by selling surplus power to other States, compared with about Rs 85 crore in the previous year, Mr S. Kathiresan, Member (Accounts), TNEB, said in an informal chat with journalists today.

He said Tamil Nadu had surplus power to sell during the nights, usually between 9 pm and 6 am. States such as Punjab, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, were willing to buy the power at a price of Rs 6 a unit.

He said that TNEB would make a clear profit on power sales because the highest price the board pays is Rs 5.40 a unit, from the naphtha-based Pillaiperumalnallur project. Its average cost would be much lower, he said.

Mr Kathiresan said the sale took place through power trading companies such as Power Trading Corporation, Lanco, KCT, Adani and NVVNL, a subsidiary of NTPC.

He said that TNEB had entered into a barter deal with the electricity board of Haryana. Under the deal, TNEB would buy about 300 MW from Haryana between February and May. TNEB would supply back 105 per cent of the power in the four subsequent months, when wind power generation would rise, due to windy conditions in the southern districts of the State.

He said that Tamil Nadu would never face a problem of power availability. The State has about 260 MW of captive generation capacity (including co-generation units of sugar mills), but these are only the units registered with TNEB for sale of surplus power.

But Tamil Nadu has about 3,500 MW of unregistered captive power— the small-sized gensets that small factories, apartment buildings and office complexes have.