City will get special treatment this summer

City will get special treatment this summer

The Hindu

Bangalore consumes about 20 per cent of the power available for all of Karnataka. And the Government may review its decision to resort to power shutdown in the city if pushed to limits

# Government to ensure that power supply is not disrupted during examination
# KPTCL trying to get captive power generators to sell power to the State grid


Bangalore: Summer is here and it has brought with it both water and power shortage. But given our rapacious consumption, the day when electricity would be rationed is not far off, experts predict.

Even with the State facing a shortage of around 15 to 23 million units of power a day, Bangalore — its pampered capital — is not likely to be too affected. With the daily consumption hovering around 130 million units, the availability is only 115 million units, of which the city accounts for some 22.5 million units.

To tide over the shortage, the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) has been forced into unscheduled load shedding in rural areas. Major cities, including Bangalore, have been exempted. Sources at the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) maintained that unscheduled load shedding for short durations in rural areas was during peak hours.

Despite the severe shortage, the State Government will ensure that power supply is not disrupted during examinations to prevent student distress.

S. Vishwanatha Prasad, Director (Technical) of BESCOM, told The Hindu that both domestic as well as agricultural consumption, mainly irrigation pumpsets, has shot up. The number of consumers in Bangalore increased by more than five per cent in the 2006 fiscal over the previous year. While BESCOM had 52.51 lakh consumers in 2005 financial year, it increased to 55.46 lakh in 2006 financial year.

In 2006 there was a 20 per cent increase in the daily consumption over the previous year. The projected increase for the 2007 financial year was around 20.86 per cent. A major share of the energy input is taken over by the Bangalore metropolitan area because of the information technology and biotechnology boom. To cater to the growing number of consumers, the KPTCL is setting up number of stations. "Another reason for the shortage of power is lack of rainfall. Last year, we did not have sufficient rainfall in the southern parts of the State," he said. The rural areas get nine hours of three-phase power and another nine of single-phase supply.

To tide over the shortage, the State had earlier urged the Union Government to increase the allocation from the central generating stations. The Chief Minister had written to Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and urged him to increase the State's quota by supplying from the unallocated generation of the central generating stations. However, the request was not considered as other States were also facing power shortage, especially during the summer.


The KPTCL is also trying to get captive power generators, which are private enterprises that generate electricity, to sell power to the State grid. A meeting with the captive power generators in the State was arranged recently by the KPTCL. The combined capacity of the captive generators is around 2,500 MW. Mr. Prasad said that a few had evinced interest to sell power but at a high rate. The power generated by a diesel unit was at Rs. 8 to Rs. 9 a unit, while by a coal unit was Rs. 5 to Rs. 6. He said that the KPTCL was ready to buy power if it were offered at reasonable rates.

The Bidadi Combined Cycle Power Plant will be a dedicated power generator for the city by the Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd. (KPCL). According to the proposal, the 1,400 MW combined gas cycle plant has four units of 350 MW each. "The sourcing for the LNG (liquefied natural gas) that is required to run the plant has not yet been finalised. If that comes through, the city may no longer face any power shortage," he said.

But the past experience of people shows that BESCOM could resort to power shutdown even in cities, including Bangalore. The Government may have to review its decision to give special treatment to Bangalore if situation demands. Keeping this in mind, people may arm themselves with gadgets such as emergency lamp (solar or battery-run) as a precaution.