Chennai: Meeting the spike in power demand this summer will not be so expensive hereafter, as TNPDCL will procure 500MW of electricity from a pumped storage plant in Andhra Pradesh.This is the first time that the state-owned discom has signed a power purchase agreement with a pumped storage plant outside the state. Greenko AP01 IREP Pvt Ltd will supply power for up to nine hours to TNPDCL in a day with continuous discharge for six hours. TNERC has approved the purchase agreement for 1.23crore per megawatt per annum. The total cost is estimated to be about 1.5crore per MW per annum. TNPDCL chairman J Radhakrishnan said the agreement requires final tweaking before the actual procurement begins. “In the last few days, the peak power demand has subsided to an extent and is around 20,000MW and the dependence is on real-time power market, but the purchase from Greenko will help meet a sudden surge in demand during the day,” said the official. Though TNPDCL floated a tender for power purchase from pumped storage plants in Nov 2025 to meet power demand this summer, not many came forward to bid. Greenko was the sole bidder. TNERC accepted the discom’s submission that procurement of pumped storage capacity is necessary to meet growing peak demand, ensure grid reliability, facilitate integration of renewable energy, and comply with the resource adequacy framework. TN has Kadamparai pumped storage with four units, each with 100MW capacity. However, it has just one functional unit. Another pumped storage plant Kundah with 500MW capacity is under construction. TN has also proposed to set up pumped storage plants with a cumulative capacity of 13,000MW.
