From what officials say chances are pretty high that the Kudankulam nuclear power plant will start operating at its full rated capacity of 1,000 MW from April. The plant’s Site Director RS Sundar told Business Line that the raising of the plant’s operating capacity — from 665 MW to 1,000 MW — would be done in two stages, after securing permission from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board for each stage.

This is good news (primarily) for Tamil Nadu, where the shortage of power is sharper and where ‘power’ is an election issue more than in other States.

When the 1,000-MW Unit-1 operates in full swing, the State will get power from 512 MW of capacity — close to 12 million units of electricity a day. At around ₹3.25 a unit, the State’s electricity generation and distribution utility Tangedco will get cheaper electricity — the utility’s average cost of electricity, as approved by the State’s electricity regulatory commission, is ₹3.55 per kWhr for 2014-15.

There is an acute shortage of power in Tamil Nadu. Last year, the Central Electricity Authority estimated that the State would need 99 billion units in 2013-14, but would have only 73 billion units, leaving a deficit of 27 per cent.

Power shortage in the State would have been worse, but for the electricity streaming in from Kudankulam. In the first 12 days of this month, Tamil Nadu got 150 million units of electricity — which is as much power the State got from the plant in the whole of January. In fact, the current month’s generation would have been a little higher if it were not for the ‘power reduction test’ that was carried out on Wednesday.

This resulted in the plant operating between 265 MW and 295 MW, instead of the regulator-approved 665 MW.

Other n-plant by Sept

Meanwhile, the other nuclear power plant that is coming up at a different site in the State — the 500-MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor — is slated to begin (‘go critical’) in September.

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