The less said about India’s power administration structure the better. The country has already earned the in-dubious distinction of hosting the biggest blackout in the country, as hungry states overdrew power from the grid.
The power generation sector is in a mess as plants lie idle due to lack of fuel. The distribution is an even bigger mess with rampant stealing and transmission losses. The state owned utilities which distribute the power to end consumers are massively indebted and have no money to buy or invest in upgrading infrastructure.
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) released the region wise power demand and supply figures which shows how unbalanced the whole power supply and demand structure is. South India is suffering from a massive deficit of almost 30%, with TN facing an over 50% deficit. Note that South India is heavily industrialized and the industries there demand high amounts of power which is unavailable. The politicians remain short sighted and venal with their short term agendas overriding the long term demands of the country.
The Southern states are not connected to the national grid which means that the heavily power surplus eastern states (20% surplus) cannot supply power to the deficient states. The situation is a bit better in North India though power deficient, as that region is connected to the national backbone.
It is the stupid and bad planning that even after 60 years of independence, the southern states are isolated in their regional grid. India has both the resources and capability of removing a huge amount of the regional power deficit. It is only the monumental mis-governance that has resulted in such an output that industries are closing and employees are being fired.