CUT OFF

CUT OFF

Deepthi M R
Posted On Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 01:03:55 AM

With the power scenario becoming bleak, the government is all set to reimpose load-shedding in the city and other parts of the state. Bangaloreans will have to go without electricity for at least an hour every day in January and February.

Subsequently, the daily duration of power cuts is likely to increase. In the past few weeks, the state’s consumption has gone up considerably, from its normal 110-115 Million Units (MU) to 120-125 MU. The generation capacity of the state from all sources is 115 million units.

“We will be discussing the current power scenario at the Cabinet sub-committee meeting on Tuesday, 30 December. We want to review the situation as the demand for power will be close to 130-135 million units per day in the months to come, especially in summer. We need to save up now to meet the demands later,” said Principal Secretary K Jairaj.

BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY
Although the government seems keen on assuring uninterrupted power, in the future it will be forced to embrace power cuts due to unmanageable peak load. Currently, Karnataka is facing a hydel shortage of 1,961 MU and this coupled with increased demand has been the main concern of distribution companies. Although the energy department has promised that they would buy power from other states to meet local needs, it will be a hard task as they have to survive till June next year.

“Once summer sets in, the need for power will increase and board exams will also begin. If power is shut down during the time of exams, it would cause disturbance among the public also. Therefore an alternative should be found”, said P S Jagannatha Gupta, former technical advisor, Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation.

In fact, officials from the energy department had quite sometime ago gone on record that they will be maintaining the daily power consumption of the state at 115 MU but if the need for more power arises then they would resort to load-shedding. The department had resorted to load-shedding more than four times in 2007. In 2008 the situation has been slightly better with the department resorting to load-shedding only once in November and calling it off within a week.