According to TNEB chairman R Poornalingam the effort now is to improve the quality of service to consumers and ensure that power supply is made available within 24 hours of a connection being sought.

The TNEB has already identified 12 to 13 circle stations in cities like Madurai, Trichy and Coimbatore to provide power supply connection on demand i.e., within 24 hours. By December this year the concept is to be extended to cover the entire state.

Poornalingam in an informal chat with media persons indicated that the board is insisting on vendors meeting ISO-9000 standards for all parts they supply to the board. Actually tender conditions stipulate that besides meeting the ISO-9000 standards, vendors should have a minimum experience of three years and a turnover of at least Rs 1 crore if they are to be considered for supply of parts.

The TNEB chairman said these are being done to ensure competition among serious players. vendors have been classified into three categories A, B and C and the board is following stringent quality norms in its tender specifications. An online indenting system supports the decision-making process.

TNEB has an annual budget of Rs 500-600 crore for its distribution side alone. The board will also be required to spend about Rs 100 crore for changing old equipment and old parts.

Earlier presiding over a TNEB seminar on `Quality Upgradation and Consumer Satisfaction', he said quality of parts required by TNEB are being upgraded so that it helps improve quality of power supply to consumers. Also the board is becoming proactive with consumers by trying to provide electricity within 24 hours of demand. In Chennai it may take a week but the attempt is to cut down on the delay and improve the quality of service.

Tamil Nadu minister of health and electricity Arcot N Veerasamy inaugurating the seminar said the board is putting new capacitors wherever there are fluctuations so as to improve the quality of power supplied to consumers.He also urged the backlog of applications lying with Chennai district for power connections to be cleared quickly to the satisfaction of the consumer.