Bengaluru left in the dark, power utilities fail citizens

Bengaluru left in the dark, power utilities fail citizens
Bengaluru,


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After facing severe power cuts in summer Bengalureans had hoped for some respite during monsoon, but the power authorities have failed them again.
With the main power generating unit tripping quite often, the city seems to city seems to be resigned to their fate of frequent power outages, report Amit S. Upadhye and Sanchita Sen. The city wit nessed only scheduled power cuts all this while, but for the last three days things have become worse as Raichur Tower Protection was hit due to lack of rain and wind. We do not usually face this situation at this time of the year. But we are sorry that this happened.

TUSHAR GIRINATH, Bescom MD Why isn't any one speaking about energy conservation or utilising the existing energy efficiently? So much power is being wasted while transmission to Bengaluru. If these issues are addressed there is some hope. Alternative energy resource projects are new and will take time to be implemented.

ASHWIN MAHESH , Member, ABIDe There are many solutions, but there is no will.
End use efficiency must be improved otherwise management of available energy is impossi ble. There are many ways to cut down energy use. Past experiments have proved that by switching over to energy efficient lighting systems about 42 per cent of consumption was reduced.

DR. T.V. RAMACHANDRA epartment of energy and wet land research group, IISc

It is back to living in darkness for Bengalureans.
The end of summer and the onset of the monsoon has not spelt an end to the power cuts which have come back with a vengeance over the past three weeks.
Accepting that they have a a seri .

ous power shortage on hand, Bescom officers, however, claim they are doing their best to cope t with the situation.

That is hardly of comfort to the peo ple who find they are having to put up with power cuts at all times of the day and sometimes night.

"The situation is so bad that we are now considering moving to an apartment with a power back-up, but this is not likely to happen overnight. In the meanwhile, we are left with appliances that don't work when you need them the most," says Reshma Singh, a software engineer.

"The power supply has been erratic in the evenings from 7 pm to 12 pm for the last week, which is very frustrating after a hard day's work," says Sudhir Kedia, a business analyst. Energy experts say there are no quick-fix solutions for the energy crisis in the state and with alternative energy resources unlike ly to take shape in the near future, they sug gest Bescom gets more effi cient in using the energy available to it.

ABIDe member Ashwin Mahesh feels Bescom must do more to make energy conservation attractive to the con sumer.

"If I talk as a consumer, I see no incentives "If I talk as a con sumer, I see no incentives for saving power. Bescom wants to make a profit but it does not think about conserving energy and reducing the essure on the demand side. A unit ing energy and reducing the pressure on the demand side. A unit of power saved, is more energy earned," Mr Mahesh points out.

Chandrashekar Hariharan, CEO of Biodiversity Conservation India Limited and an expert on green buildings, underlines that every individual and household must move towards efficient lighting and air conditioning systems as they are the two main energy guzzlers.