Refuting the opposition charge that the government had failed to address the bleak power scenario, chief minister J. Jayalalithaa said her government has initiated new power projects to generate 3,800 MW and that efforts are also on to set up 500 MW power station using LNG.
The Koodankulam nuclear power plant will start generation in two months’ time and power outages would be phased out from June, she told the Assembly.
Making a suo motto statement on Thursday, she detailed the steps being taken by her government to tide over the power crisis and implementation of various power projects.
Her assertion on Koodankulam comes days after her government gave the nod for the two 1,000 MW reactors of the project coming up on Indo-Russian partnership basis.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in her presence by Indian Oil for setting up a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Terminal at Ennore last week. Once the terminal was commissioned, the government would utilise the LNG from it and study the feasibility of setting up a 500 MW power plants using LNG as fuel.
GAIL was laying a pipeline between Kochi and Bengaluru via Coimbatore, Salem and Dharmapuri.
The government would also study the possibility of setting up 500 MW power plants utilising this.
Recalling that her government had announced power generation projects for 3,800 MW in the 2011-12 budget, Ms. Jayalalithaa proposed 660 MW Ennore Thermal Power replacement project.
“It will be an environmental friendly project with advanced supercritical technology consuming less coal but generating more power,” she said.