With the view to tackling the power shortage amid the events of outages reported from across the state, the Tamil Nadu state government has been taking measures to mitigate the shortages by procuring more power from the suppliers. 

The government will be purchasing power to the tune of 6000 megawatts to meet the expected shortage that would occur in April and May. According to IANS, the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Company (TANGEDCO) has made an agreement with power suppliers to purchase 3047 megawatts for the month of April and 3007 megawatts for the month of May. 

Speaking to IANS, a senior officer of TANGEDCO said that they have made a holistic presentation to the state government on the acute power shortage that is expected to happen in April and May. While each month requires an additional 2500 megawatts of power, the TANGEDCO has chalked out strategies to buy a total of 6000 megawatts of power from the power suppliers. 

TANGEDCO had also approached Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), a public sector unit, to acquire power. The state electricity department has asked the NLC to provide 1500 megawatts of power if the requirement arises. It must be noted that no agreement has been made with the NLC regarding the purchase of power and according to the officials, the power from the NLC will be kept in reserve. 

The state government is also been taking steps to get power through solar and has also arranged 1000 megawatts of power from the solar power producers. However, this solar power package will also be kept in reserve to meet the immediate requirements. On Monday- April 18, Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister Senthil Balaji has said in the legislative assembly that the state has been facing an acute power shortage and that TANGEDCO has been in the process of acquiring power.