State may be heading for load-shedding

State may be heading for load-shedding
Deccan Herald

Now that Karnataka has bleak chances of getting more power from the Centre to meet its increased demand, the question now being asked is whether the State government will show the political will to impose load-shedding in urban areas.

Now that Karnataka has bleak chances of getting more power from the Centre to meet its increased demand, the question now being asked is whether the State government will show the political will to impose load-shedding in urban areas or continue to buy power at a higher tariff.

According to highly placed sources, though Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on February 14 submitted a memorandum to Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde seeking allocation of 500 MW to the State from the Central Power Grid during his visit to New Delhi, Mr Shinde is understood to have made no commitment on fulfiling the State’s demand.



Long list of states

Presenting the long list of states which are facing shortage of power, Mr Shinde is understood to have told the Chief Minister that in the present circumstances it is difficult to meet Karnataka’s demand. Mr Shinde is said to have particularly referred to Maharashtra which last week took the decision to impose load shedding in all urban areas barring Mumbai, to meet the huge deficit of over 5000 MW.

Moreover, the AP TRANSCO is again said to have approached the Centre with a proposal for allotting 100 MW. This is in addition to the 100 MW that AP TRANSCO got last month. According to informed sources, with the power demand in the State rising to 130 million units (MU) per day during the past few days (but on February 14 it was 126 MU), the authorities at the Load Despatch Centre (LDC) here are understood to have written to the higher ups that load shedding may be necessary in the coming days to tide over the shortage.

On Wednesday, the State drew 36.83 MU from the Central Grid Stations which included 7.21 MU extra power.



Higher tariff

That means, the State has to pay a higher tariff of Rs 5 to Rs 5.50 per unit for this extra power as against the normal tariff of Rs 2 and odd per unit. But the authorities at the KPTCL here confided that on February 14, they drew slightly more from the Central Grid Stations due to the failure of the 400 kV Talcher-Kolar line.