Consumers' association welcomes Tangedco restructuring

CHENNAI: Opining that the bifurcation of Tangedco and formation of renewable energy corporation will promote better management of power supply utilities, Tamil Nadu Electricity Consumers' Association (TECA) has welcomed the move.

In a statement, N Pradeep, president of TECA, said that the Electricity Act, 2003 of the union government had mandated the division of all state government owned power generation and supply companies into three companies, each one dealing with one function only, that is, generation, transmission and distribution.

"Following that dictate, the Tamil Nadu government had separated the transmission function into a separate company called Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation Ltd (TANTRANSCO). However the generation and distribution functions remained in Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd (TANGEDCO). Now the operations of Tangedco are to be carried on by three newly created companies from a date to be decided by the government," the statement added.

Welcoming the move, Pradeep opined that the new arrangement would promote better management of the electric supply utilities of Tamil Nadu.

Other state governments have divided their distribution function into more than one entity. A similar arrangement in Tamil Nadu as well would provide better service to the consumers and result in greater efficiency in the function of the distribution utility, he added. On the other hand, Tangedco employees are opposing the move and allege that the government is making the Tangedco into small companies to avail loans. This will allow the government to sell the companies to private firms, Central Organisation of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Employees (COTEE) had alleged.