Power crisis may worsen in City

Power crisis may worsen in City
Bangalore, Feb 20, DHNS:

The State is facing a daily power shortage of 30 million units (mu) and this has had a severe impact on the City, which consumes more than 50 per cent of the total power available in Karnataka.

Sources in the power sector admit that Bescom has resorted to frequent load-shedding to maintain the grid. “The City is being subjected to four hours of load-shedding, eventhough it is only one hour officially. There are two hours of power cut in the peak hours and two hours in the non-peak hours,” the official confirmed. Power cuts have been so frequent that there is growing discontent among students preparing for their examinations.

As if this was not bad enough, days like this Sunday are a virtual nightmare for citizens as day-long power cuts are to be expected, due to renovation works. The power utility usually prepares for the summer months with upgradations and repairs on its lines and sub-stations.

However, this time the timing has been extremely bad for the consumers, who have not had a breather. Supply to the rural areas has also been erratic as the shortage is about 12 mu, according to sources.

While former Energy Minister and later the Chief Minister have been consistent with their promises to supply power during the summer months, the power supply has been inconsistent.

Faced with a staggering demand of 145 mu, the State has no other way to manage the load, except buy power from outside.

Fingers were earlier pointed to the shortage of Central grid supply and now the State grid.
As much as 300 MW is now being supplied by Jindal and Reliance and the hydel and thermal plants are being run at maximum capacity.

As the State shows no further interest in meeting the demand, citizens have a reason to be apprehensive about the coming summer.