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• Power consumers — whether commercial or domestic — should be prepared to pay a fair tariff to enable electricity boards remain financially healthy, according to Mr A.V. Varadharajan, former President, Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (Codissia).He also advised the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) to streamline the tariff structure to bring down the number of slabs for easier management.Inaugurating the International Wind Exhibition, organised as part of the` 3rd International Wind Conference and Exhibition WE20 by 2020' at the Codissia Trade Fair complex here recently, he termed Tamil Nadu as the ‘head quarters of wind energy', as the State topped in the generation of wind power.
• Referring to the plan to unbundle the State electricity boards into three arms — generation, transmission and distribution — for better efficiency, he said for more than a decade the issue was discussed among those connected to the power sector. While most of the States have complied with these guidelines, the TNEB had for long ‘continuously, successfully' resisted implementing it before it became no longer possible. But it chose to divide itself into two — generation and distribution as one entity and transmission as an independent entity, “which is a very funny thing”.He said all the State electricity boards in the country thought on the same lines since independence and followed rules that were a relic of the British raj. There were a large number of tariff slabs even within the same class of consumers such as HT or LT consumers that defied logic. His suggestion was to limit them and make consumers themselves read the meter to calculate the power charges.

STATE MONOPOLY

• Referring to the consequences of electricity boards remaining the monopoly of the State, Mr Varadharajan said as they were the assets of the people, the latter were responsible for the boards' financial health and suggested the board to rationalise the tariff slabs. Tracing the increase in power tariff over years, he said from 40 paise per unit in the 1960s, the rate has come to Rs 4 per unit now in the State. While power tariff has gone up ten times, the cost of so many other things has gone up one hundred times during this period. He advised consumers to readily accept reasonable increase in power tariff and said the Governments should make the state electricity boards transparent and efficient in administration.
• He also referred to the changing pattern of power consumption in Tamil Nadu where domestic power consumption, from being a small portion of the overall power consumption, has come to almost match industrial power consumption, aided possibly by the free power supply. He urged the State and central governments to take the initiative in providing the required infrastructure.Mr K. Kasthoorirangaian, Chairman, Indian Wind Power Association (IWPA) spoke. The three-day exhibition-cum-conference was jointly organised by the IWPA and World Wind Energy Association, Bonn, Germany. Prominent companies associated with wind energy such as Suzlon, Gamesa, Vestas and Siemens, among others, participated in the show.The theme ‘WE20 by 2020' implies 20 per cent grid penetration by wind energy by 2020 in the country.

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