Event Reports

The availability of a large area of land is a prerequisite to the installation of solar panels. In order to generate 1MW of power,  the area of land required could be between 2.5 acres and 4 acres. This implies that purely investing in solar farms filled with hundreds or maybe thousands of solar panels instead of crops will have a serious impact on the agricultural output which the land could have produced.

With increasing demand for electricity in urban and rural areas, impending shortages in electricity supply due to unavailability of coal and increasing penetration of renewable energy in India, it is imperative to ensure a Just Transition for electricity consumers.

Citizen consumer and civic Action Group (CAG), in association with the Electricity Consumer Cell - Tirunelveli, organized a webinar on energy efficiency & electrical safety on June 22, 2021 via Zoom platform.

Citizen consumer and civic Action Group (CAG), in association with the Press Institute of India (PII), organized an online media workshop on March 26, 2021 to inform the media about the seriousness of trans fat issue, the regulations in place, the need for effective implementation of regulations and a change in cooking/eating habits. The speakers of the workshop included Dr Sumitra Shanmugham - senior medical practitioner, Ms. Rina Mukherji - senior journalist and Mr. Dhakshanamoorthy - senior reporter.

As part of the National Road Safety Month, on February 18th 2021, CAG held a webinar on road safety in Tamil Nadu.  The highlight of the webinar was the perspective shared by Mr. Pramod Kumar, IPS who heads the State Traffic Planning Wing of the Tamilnadu Police. With the recent strides made by Tamil Nadu in reducing road crash fatality, he was able to throw light on how these have been achieved and how the government is not waiting to rest on its laurels but looking to improve the state’s track record so the state can reach zero deaths.

Over the years, as CAG has interacted with citizens across Tamil Nadu on road safety issues, we have noticed that many of us are unclear on insurance matters. Do we need insurance to drive a vehicle? What is third party insurance? What is mandated by law?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, online quiz competitions were conducted for students from classes VI to XII. The aim was to engage with younger citizens raising their awareness of the working of the electricity sector. The topics covered were electricity governance, energy efficiency, and renewable energy. E- certificates were sent to students who took the online quiz through their registered email address.

Social media plays a significant role in this digital era across all sectors. This is especially so during the COVID-19 pandemic situation, where consumers are left with little option than to communicate virtually using social media.

Electricity Consumer Cells (ECCs), used to conduct outreach meetings twice in a month in their respective districts (Tiruvallur, Tiruvannamalai, Tirunelveli, Cuddalore, Salem, Tiruchirapalli, and Vellore) to sensitise consumers about the ECCs and help them by clarifying their queries related to electricity problems and to create awareness on energy conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy.