City lives on hope, banks on power to beat the heat

City lives on hope, banks on power to beat the heat
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: Summer is back and how! Bangalore just had its hottest February. Though the power position is grim, hydel storage levels can still meet the peaking requirements. But this no guarantee for a power disruption-free season.

Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited officials say consumers will have to put up with occasional disruptions in March due to sudden rise in consumption.

Bangalore is reporting a peak load of 1,100 MW which is expected to spike by another 100 MW. The city has registered a growth of 13 percent in power consumption in the last two years.

State-wide power consumption has peaked to 112 million units (MUs) a day. Of this, Bangalore itself accounts for about 35 MUs. A rise from 32 MUs a year ago.

Increased use of fans and ACs pushes up demand. But the big power guzzlers are irrigation pumpsets which are switched on for long hours by farmers in this, the sowing season. And since KPTCL has no funds to meet the sudden spurt in demand, it must cope through load management.

Here, the role of engineers handling load-despatch is crucial. They must deftly manage load to ensure supply at night so that students are not put to inconvenience in the exam season.

Ad so Bangalore is spared of darkness at the expense of rural areas, which get only an 18-hour supply a day, half of which in single phase. That, however, is no guarantee for uninterrupted power to the city’s outskirts. These areas are known for both domestic and farm load, and the latter the KPTCL would surely want to restrict.

‘‘Yet, we have not been able to ease load in several places due to increased commercial load. Sudden imbalances have cropped up with increasing commercial complexes, which we had not anticipated. Bescom will now have to rearrange its 11 kV lines to deal with the situation,’’ a senior KPTCL official said. In some places, we have made temporary arrangements to ease load concentration, he added.