Chennai: Former electricity minister V Senthilbalaji and incumbent minister R Nirmalkumar traded barbs in the Assembly on Friday over complaints of inflated power bills, defunct officials’ contact numbers and alleged lapses in power infrastructure development.The argument started when Coimbatore South MLA Senthilbalaji started pointing out that minister Nirmalkumar and TNPDCL officials were making contradictory statements over complaints of erratic power bills. “The minister said that the complaints were few, TNPDCL chairman and managing director said 3.7 lakh services were found to have recorded high consumption,” he said.He went on to highlight that as many as 23 chief engineer posts and two key director positions including distribution head in TNPDCL remain vacant and attributed such vacancies to the unreliable power supply the state has been experiencing for the last three months.“While Minnagam (the centralised grievance recording system) received many complaints regarding power cuts, the official numbers were not reachable. This is due to the administrative failure to carry out number portability after changing the service provider,” he said. The minister also blamed TNPDCL for not stocking enough equipment for summer and monsoon preparedness and cited delays in getting meters for new services for upto a month.Nirmalkumar intervened and clarified that TNPDCL voluntarily reinspected 3.7 lakh services which recorded three-fold increase in power consumption, based on complaints of excessive power bills on social media.“Only 2,719 mismatches between actual and recorded consumption were detected. At least 1,350 such discrepancies were due to defective meters, while 1369 were due to wrong reading by assessors,” the minister said. Nirmalkumar blamed the table reading method (recording consumption data arbitrarily without physical inspection of meters) in the month of April during assembly elections for high power bills in subsequent months. “We have addressed the issue and erratic power bills will not happen hereafter,” the minister said.Nirmalkumar blamed poor recruitment and infrastructure development during the previous DMK regime for the present state of affairs in the energy dept. “Only 343 personnel were recruited in the five years and only 122 new substations were set up. Between 2021 and 2026, 99,000 transformers have been set up which is only a marginal increase from 84,000 transformers set up during 2016-21. “As per our review, the State needs 593 stations. We are planning to set up 300 on priority basis this year and another 293 substation in subsequent phases,” the minister said.Senthilbalaji accused Nirmalkumar of using terms like scams and reforms during his press briefings. “According to the white paper, infra development works are underway at the cost of Rs 5,560 core. Also, we managed to ensure uninterrupted power supply with the limited man power, which made the union govt appreciate TNPDCL for its operational efficiency,” Senthil Kumar retorted.During his reply to the demand for grants for the energy dept, minister Nirmalkumar said there will not be tariff revision for all consumer categories this year, unlike the previous DMK govt, which hiked tariff for five consecutive years.Key announcements in energy dept50,000 new agricultural electricity connections in 2026-27.TNPSC to fill 2,558 vacant posts, apart from contract 10,000 workersAdditional 33kV feeders for 20 substations in Chennai at about Rs.104 croreCapacity of transformers at 10 extra high voltage substations enhanced at about Rs 110.76 crore1,250 distribution transformer structures in Chennai to be converted into ring main units for about Rs.250 crore.Online application portal for renewable energy grid connectivity, open access and BESS projectsAuto debit of power bills for low-tension services through e-Mandate (eNACH) registrationWhatsApp chatbot for automatic response to consumer complaintsFor applicants seeking a new single-phase domestic electricity connection from the TNPDCL, where no extension or improvement work is required, the connection will be provided based on self-declaration without a field inspection.
