Chennai, Oct 18 (IANS): PMK founder leader S. Ramadoss has said that buying power at a rate of Rs 20 per unit would destroy the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd (TANGEDCO).

In a statement on Sunday, the PMK leader said that TANGEDCO is already reeling under a severe financial crisis and that the huge amount being spent for buying power would break the backbone of the power generation and distribution company of the state.

The PMK leader said that buying a unit of power at five times its price would crush the organisation and added that with the gap between demand and supply of power increasing by the day, measures have to be taken to control purchasing electricity at this much higher rate.

Ramadoss said that TANGEDCO has a debt of Rs 1.59 lakh crore and that the organisation is not taking measures to reduce its debt burden.

On Tamil Nadu Power Minister V. Senthil Balaji's statement that to overcome a deficit of 2500 MW of power, the state was planning to buy at a rate of Rs 2.61 per unit, Ramadoss said the possibilities of such a purchase are highly doubtful.

He said that TANGEDCO had bought power at a minimum price of Rs 17.77 per unit on October 14 and at a maximum price of Rs 20 per unit. He said that the TANGEDCO officials had miserably failed in predicting the demand for power in the state. The senior leader said that in the past few days, 2,850 MW of electricity was bought from outside.

Ramadoss said that electricity generation from wind has reduced from 7 crore units in December 2020 to 2.3 crore units in 2021 and added that Solar power generation has also reduced from 2 crore units in 2020 to 1.2 crore units in 2021.