Electric Problems Tiruvannamalai

Tiruvannamalai is now suffering during this hot, sweltering summer, with up to 10 hours of power cuts a day. As in the rest of the State, many schools and businesses in Tiruvannamalai District have now organized their days around power outages. 

The current power crisis in Tamil Nadu (and throughout India) is a complicated issue, and to find out more, read the below informative and interesting article:- 

How Tamil Nadu's electricity problems can be solved 

“It is a sweaty problem. Scheduled power cuts of longer duration are a certainty in the coming months in Chennai and elsewhere in the state. 

Smaller industries will likely be hit harder thanks to the proposed load shedding. Already people have had to face scheduled daily power cuts, one hour in Chennai and up to eight hours in the districts.

Load-shedding, a term one normally associates only with Kolkata is now a way of life in the state.

In the 80s and 90s, water scarcity kept citizens of Chennai awake and got them to preserve every ounce of drinking water. 

That situation has changed now, and water supply and management has not been a problem in the last few years. 

Can power supply pull off a similar success story? 

At present, it appears to be a daunting task.

Power deficit, which was around 1500MW in 2009, has more than trebled in the last three years. In fact, three years ago, going by official statements, on paper, it seemed as if it was only a matter of time before the state became 'self-sufficient' in 2011 and a state with surplus power in 2012.” 

To read more go to this link here:

State Energy

It was recently announced that as part of promoting non-conventional energy sources, residences of Tamil Nadu Ministers and members of the State Assembly will soon get solar water heaters.

In a recent debate on the demands for grants for the Energy Department, officials stated that the Government has sanctioned Rs. 2 crore (USD 467,290) for that purpose. It was also announced that Tamil Nadu was likely to get foreign investments to the tune of Rs.160,000 crore (USD 37 Billion) if the Centre allows the setting up of power projects in the State. Over 25 companies from abroad have submitted proposals to generate 40,000 MW of power in Tamil Nadu, which would help the State Electricity Board to receive an additional revenue of Rs.3,000 crore (USD 696 million) per annum in lieu of "feeding charges" from those Companies.

It was further announced that there would be no power cuts in Tamil Nadu this summer. In a bid to make the State fully energised, it has also been proposed that power connections should be provided to 80 villages located in hilly areas of the State which hithertofore had no power supply. Non-conventional energy sources would be used to provide power connections in such villages.

Other than the free solar water heaters for the politicians and non-conventional energy sources for the 80 villages, it is difficult to understand just how prominent non-conventional energy sources will be in the electricity power plans of this State. If there is one thing this State has a surfeit of, its SUNSHINE:

In this respect its quite extraordinary that solar and non-conventional power sources do not, thus far, play any sort of significant role in this District. Several ashrams and private homes have solar photovoltaic panels and solar powered water heaters but other than that there is a glaring deficiency in promoting solar and non-conventional energy systems in this District.

We at least have a environment-friendly battery operated motorcyle dealership (e-bikes) in Tiruvannamalai and other than that one needs to go to Pondicherry or Chennai to purchase alternative and non conventional energy systems.

Lineman

Here in the countryside electric power fluctuations are all too frequent. To help protect all electrical items in my home (including my computer system) I asked the Electricity Board to send a lineman to put on clamps on my electric lines to try and stablise my power supply. So here is the lineman sent by the EB on top of the pole outside my home. As you can see he does not have much in the way of protective clothing or equipment and clambered up the pole with bare feet and just a few tools.

Now that's over the lineman climbs down in the same way he went up. As you will notice from the below photograph, the cement post is completely smooth with no foothold or handhold help for my brave, intrepid linesman!

Watching the whole exercise with absolutely no interest whatsoever is little Muffin, the young puppy in the family.

Casper, one of the older dogs in our family group, was definitely more interested in the proceedings and didn't leave his perch from the side of the house until the lineman had distanced himself far from our home.