Power utilities appeal for public cooperation to reduce consumption to tide over crisis.
The state government may be doing all it can to procure power from every source available, but the efforts appear to be jinxed. To tide over the crisis the state government has decided to buy 1,500 megawatts (MW) at `12 per unit. But that too may not be enough for the state to tide over the power crisis.
In September and October, the state purchased close to 1,300 MW. An additional 300 MW is expected soon. The state has also proposed to buy 300 MW and 210 MW of power from Chattisgarh and Punjab, respectively.
Though most parts of the city had no load shedding for the past 24 hours, the situation looks grim.
“There is a huge problem for Bangalore. All the states including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala are overdrawing power from the central grid, which is hampering our share of power,” P Manivannan, Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) MD, told DNA.
An official from Power Company of Karnataka Limited (PCKL), on condition of anonymity, said there is no power available. “It is not that we are not trying to get it. There is congestion in the central exchange corridor which has hampered our purchases. The state has a shortfall of 20 million units as on October 2, which means we need to buck up before it is too late,” he said.
Power utility officials are also blaming farmers who changed the cropping patterns when power was given to them freely. “Since they are getting free power for pump sets, farmers in Kolar and Chitradurga have changed their cropping patterns. They have shifted to cash crops which need more water. This has led to a 20 per cent increase in consumption of power,” he said. A PCKL official said, “For Bangalore urban, we don’t want to resort to load shedding for the next few days. But, there are major problems in transmission. The quality of power supply has decreased due to 10 per cent transmission and distribution losses.”
Also, PCKL wants to address the situation by spreading awareness among the people. “We have seen that geysers, which go on at 7am and the lights turning on at 6pm, are our main targets. We want to create awareness among people and tell them that it is not possible to supply power if there is no cooperation from their side, too,” he said.
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