The state is likely to get 150 MW power from Punjab following talks between Union Power Minister Rangarajan Kumaramangalam and the Punjab Government.Disclosing this to The Indian Express, state Electricity Minister Arcot N Veerasamy said the 150 MW power from Punjab will be transferred through the Chandrapur power units in Maharashtra, via Ramagundam super thermal power station in Andhra Pradesh, entering Tamil Nadu through the Sriperumbudur feeder station.

``If the Union Power Minister used his discretion and granted 150 MW of unallocated power from the power station in Neyveli, our problem (of power shortage) will be solved,'' Veerasamy said, claiming that the State's present power shortfall was only 300 MW. (The State is already receiving 95 MW of unallocated power from Neyveli.)

However, going by facts available at the Tamil NaduElectricity Board (TNEB), it is a far from rosy picture in the state, with officials quoting a severe shortfall of more than 500 MW. ``The power scenario in the State is only getting more dismal,'' admits TNEB sources.

In the past three days there have been multiple outages (or tripping) in two units in the 2050 MW Ramagundam station and one unit of the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) in Kalpakkam crippling the power situation in the state further, say TNEB officials.

On Monday (April 6) at 1.49 pm a 210 MW unit of Ramagundam tripped, followed by one of the two 500 MW units tripping at 8.58 pm on Wednesday. In the early hours of Wednesday, at about 4 am the 175 MW unit of MAPS went out of operation. All these units await resumption of operations.

The outages of these units have only increased the shortfall to more than 500 MW rather than decreased it as claimed by the State Electricity Minister. Last month, the State Government acknowledged a power shortage of 500 MW placing the State's energy demandat 4900 MW. To make up the shortfall, a desperate plea was sent to the Centre for increasing Tamil Nadu's share from the Central grid from 10 per cent to 65 per cent. The State also decided to purchase 200 MW from the Maharashtra Government.

The new Union Power Minister agreed to grant 300 MW from the north-east Grid. But the problems were far from being solved when the three power units at Chandrapur in Maharastra tripped in March-end and the 100 MW flowing into the Tamil Nadu from Maharashtra also dried up.

The reason for the transmission failure was blamed on the aging capacitors. To overcome the problem to an extent, the Centre agreed to increase TN's share from the Neyveli thermal power station by another 95 MW.

But the shortfall has only gone up to more than 500 MW with the tripping of the Kalpakkam unit (on Wednesday) which was supplying 140 MW to Tamil Nadu, add TNEB sources. The other 175 MW unit in Kalpakkam has been shut down for more than three months. One can only wonder how the StateMinister arrived at the figure of 300 MW shortfall in the state.

There has been some respite, TNEB, officials admit, by way of the agricultural sector, which consumes free power amounting to 26 per of the state's total demand, `slightly' reducing its operations, which is normal for the month of April, thus marginally easing the power situation.

On Wednesday evening, Veerasamy summoned an emergency meeting of high-level TNEB officials, including its new chairman M B Pranesh to tackle the problems arising out of the tripping in Ramagundam and Kalpakkam. The Minister said that he was in touch with the Union Power Minister. The state Government hopes that the power flow from Punjab would somewhat overcome the problem.

Meanwhile, there were several complaints from residents in Chennai about low voltage and `dipping frequency' problems. The city alone needs 1400 MW power.