Published Jun 12, 2026 | 1:00 PM ⚊ Updated Jun 12, 2026 | 1:00 PM
Tamil Nadu's electricity sector should ideally have around 1.4 lakh employees, ranging from junior assistants to senior engineers.
Synopsis: Recurring power cuts across Tamil Nadu in the past few weeks have sparked public anger, with some claiming on social media that outages have worsened since the TVK government came to power. However, electricity workers and officials say the state is not facing a power shortage and instead point to years of inadequate maintenance, ageing infrastructure and severe staff shortages as the main causes of the disruptions. The government has announced new response teams, outage centres and plans to recruit 15,000 employees.
Videos of residents protesting frequent night-time power outages have gone viral across Tamil Nadu in recent weeks.
From Ambattur and Perambur in Chennai to several neighbourhoods along the East Coast Road (ECR), residents have taken to social media to complain that recurring power cuts are disrupting their sleep and daily lives. Similar complaints have emerged from districts across the state, with residents reporting frequent outages and delays in power restoration.
Some social media users have also alleged that the increase in outages is linked to the change in government, claiming that power disruptions have worsened since the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) government assumed office on 10 May.
But is the recent change in government really responsible for the outages? What is causing the recurring power cuts being reported across Tamil Nadu?
Tamil Nadu currently supplies electricity to approximately 3.52 crore consumers through an extensive distribution network consisting of 1,910 substations and more than 4.47 lakh transformers.
The state’s daily electricity demand regularly exceeds 20,000 MW and can rise significantly during periods of extreme heat. As temperatures across the Indian subcontinent continue to rise and climate-related weather patterns become more pronounced, Tamil Nadu has witnessed a surge in electricity consumption, particularly for air conditioning and cooling.
At a time when residents are already struggling with rising temperatures, recurring power cuts have triggered frustration and protests in several localities.
According to electricity workers, however, the problem is not a shortage of power generation.
“There is no power shortage in Tamil Nadu. The same situation existed during the previous government as well. The difference now is that incidents are being amplified through social media,” said T Jeyasankar, State General Secretary of the Central Organisation of Tamil Nadu Electricity Employees (COTEE).
Jeyasankar said the recent attention surrounding power outages has as much to do with politics and social media as with the outages themselves.
“Power cuts have been occurring for years. Earlier, when the DMK was in power, TVK supporters would highlight these incidents on social media and demand accountability from the government. Now, after the change in government, DMK and AIADMK supporters are doing the same against the TVK government. The outages are not new, but social media has made the issue far more visible and politically charged,” he said.
Jeyasankar argues that uninterrupted electricity supply depends on continuous maintenance of the power distribution network.
“A power outage does not happen overnight. To ensure uninterrupted supply, every component, from transformers to transmission equipment, must undergo regular maintenance on a quarterly, half-yearly, annual and seasonal basis. Without proper maintenance, reliable power supply cannot be guaranteed,” he said.
According to Jeyasankar, two key factors are behind the growing number of outages:
He said Tamil Nadu’s electricity sector should ideally have around 1.4 lakh employees, ranging from junior assistants to senior engineers.
“At present, only about 68,000 employees are working. It is impossible to properly maintain the entire electricity network with such limited manpower,” he said.
He further claimed that there are around 46,000 vacancies among frontline field staff responsible for attending to consumer complaints and maintenance work.
According to Jeyasankar, a single substation typically distributes electricity to more than 40 localities through transformers, feeders, pillars and transmission lines.
“If a feeder trips at a substation, power supply can be interrupted across all those localities. In many cases, fuses blow and multiple faults occur simultaneously,” he explained.
Under normal circumstances, field staff would attend to each fault quickly. However, due to the shortage of workers, electricity board employees are unable to respond to multiple locations simultaneously.
“In such situations, the available workers cannot physically attend to dozens of locations at the same time. Restoration gets delayed, and people experience prolonged outages,” he said.
Jeyasankar warned that frustration among consumers is increasingly being directed at frontline electricity workers, who are themselves struggling with staff shortages.
He said the government must urgently fill vacancies and strengthen the workforce to prevent the situation from worsening.
“If adequate recruitment is not carried out quickly, there is a risk that angry members of the public may begin targeting electricity workers who are already operating under immense pressure,” he said.
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Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) Chairman and Managing Director Dr J Radhakrishnan IAS rejected claims of a statewide power shortage.
“There is no general power shortage or statewide power outage in Tamil Nadu. If that were the case, electricity consumption figures would have declined. Instead, Chennai alone is currently recording around 5,000 MW of consumption, while statewide usage remains above 20,000 MW. These figures clearly show that electricity supply is continuing,” he told South First.
According to him, outages reported in certain areas are largely due to localised issues such as cable faults and ageing electrical infrastructure.
“We are identifying these issues and rectifying them immediately,” he added.
Amid growing complaints, Energy and Law Minister CTR Nirmal Kumar chaired a review meeting on 10 June to address recurring power disruptions.
Following the meeting, the government announced the formation of:
The minister also announced the establishment of 77 new power outage response centres, in addition to the facilities already in operation.
Earlier, while speaking to reporters on 8 June, Nirmal Kumar said the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board would recruit 15,000 permanent employees to strengthen the workforce and improve service delivery.
