Bangalore to face 4 hour power cuts

You may be hoping for an early respite from the ongoing power crisis. But that is not to be. This is why: Bangalore Electric Supply Company (Bescom) has still not been able to fix a deal for steady supply of power to tide over the crisis.

Senior Bescom officials, who spoke to DNA on condition of anonymity, said the situation is grim and that the state, including Bangalore, may have to brace up for four-hour power cuts if all efforts fail.

Karnataka is not the only state facing a power crisis. Neighbouring states, too, are facing a grim situation;  and with the demand for power from private power companies going up, so has the price – it has gone up to Rs9.50 per unit. With a shortage of 800MW,  the power crisis is set to continue.

Bescom MD, P Manivannan, told DNA on Thursday that Bescom is planning to to buy 700MW of power from Power Company of Karnataka Limited and Karnataka Power Corporation Limited at Rs9.50 a unit. Besides, the state is also hoping to buy more power from the Centre.  If all efforts fail, “we will look at introducing scheduled load shedding so that citizens are not inconvenienced”, he said.

“After the Ramagundam power plant in Andhra Pradesh closed down on Sunday, major crunch in energy supply has loomed over us. This central power grid used to supply power to other states including Kerala, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh, apart from Karnataka,” a senior Bescom official said.

“Bescom had initially planned on purchasing 500MW of power from Jindal…but the price is likely to go up with more demand for power from other states,” he said.

Karnataka is getting a total of 142 million units of power from hydel sources. “But, even this is meagre as major power supply comes in from Thermal sources for us. Even Bellary Thermal Power Station has been shut down along with five stations of thermal energy in Raichur due to coal shortage,” he said.

The unscheduled power cuts were supposed to be lifted on October 1 with Bescom hoping to come up with a solution to mitigate the crisis.