Tamil Nadu must strive to sustain its surplus position in power

At the fifth power conference on ‘Tamil Nadu moving towards 24/7 Sustainable Power Supply,’ jointly organised by The Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) and India Energy Forum(IEF), here on Friday, he highlighted the economic, environmental, technological and the knowledge sustainability which is essential for maintaining the current position of surplus power.  

Striking a balance between thermal and other energy resources will move towards sustainability, Razdan said, appreciating the 100% electrification of villages in TN. He laid emphasis on capacity building for the technical staff while moving towards renewable energy. 

T Shivaraman, Past President, MCCI and MD, Shriram EPC, in his welcome address, lauded the turnaround of the power situation from deficit in 2013 to surplus power in 2017. Noting that the future is electric and there are interesting trends in public transport with metros and electric buses, he said “we have to plan for 5 years from now and reimagine the grid system for energy integration.” 

V Sriram, CEO, IMAcS Chennai, Knowledge Partner for this conference, made a presentation on how the energy sector had moved significantly from 2013 to 2017. “Though the projections were deficit, we have moved to a surplus,” he said, while dwelling on the demand supply gap peak deficit which had fallen sharply, power demand balance of industry, domestic and agriculture and the concerns of subsidy burden and TANGEDCO’s losses.  

T Madhava Das, EVP (T&D) L&T Construction, in his special address, mentioned about L&T’s contribution to the power sector and elaborated on the SEEDS of sustainable power, which are solar and other forms of energy, energy storage, substations and TL for evacuation, smart distribution and STATCOM. The conference covered three detailed technical sessions with perspectives on generating capacity by power producers, distribution, supply and storage the challenges and opportunities and pricing, financing and efficiency for a viable power sector.