International brand image of India?s IT hub Bangalore has once again taken a hit as the state government stand helpless on unscheduled power cuts in the city in recent days.
With troubles from various quarters, the Karnataka government is now weighing options to buy power from other states and private utilities.
Since July first week, the state, Bangalore in particular, started witnessing frequent unscheduled power cuts following depletion of water storage level at hydel resources and technical snag at a generating unit at Raichur Thermal Power Station (RTPS).
The energy shortage was mainly because of weakening monsoon that resulted in depletion of hydel resources. Normally, inflows to the hydel reservoirs in the state start in June after Southwest monsoon hit the state.
An official attached to Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (KPTCL), requesting anonymity, said the water storage in the three major hydel resources of the state was said to be too low compared with that of last year.
In fact the state is mainly dependent on hydel power, which makes for 62% of the total generation. The hydel power share has now declined to 20%. While the RTPS contributes to another 20%of the state?s generation, the rest comes from Central generating stations.
Linganamakki reservoir has a storage of only 19.47% of its capacity as against 62.41% during the same time last year. Supa has a storage of only 22.32% against 45.32% and Mani?s storage stood at 21.86%, down from 53.63% last year.
While the energy consumption in the state currently stood at 120 to 130 million units (MUs) a day, the KPTCL could supply only 100 MUs with the state drawing around only 48 million units of power from the hydel resources every day. The crisis will deepen further if there is no sufficient rainfall in the next 10 days, the official added.
To tide over the crisis, the state government has sought power from Chhattisgarh, which reportedly assured of providing a minimum of 100 mw power to Karnataka. However the state has appealed to the Chhattisgarh to provide at least 500 mw, said Karnataka energy minister KS Eswarappa on Friday. The minister alleged that the Centre had diverted 100 mw of power from Karnataka?s total unallocated share of 150 mw to Andhra Pradesh.
Currently the state is receiving 1,546 mw from the central power generating stations. The state has asked the Centre to provide 3,000 mw, the minister said adding the members of cabinet subcommittee on power would visit Delhi soon to appeal to the Prime Minister and the union minister for power to come to the rescue of the state.
However with the power utilisation in Bangalore growing at alarming level, industrialists say that the successive state governments have failed to take precautionary measures in creating power resources.
According to energy analysts, the state?s peak hour requirement stood at 6,583 mw in 2007 against the supply of 5,506 mw, leading to 16% deficit at 1,077 mw. In fact, annual energy requirement has increased to 40,787 MUs in 2007 from 32, 173 MU in 2002-03. At this rate, the peak hour demand was estimated to increase to 14, 071 mw in the next 10 years. The state government is also taking measures to increase power generation by 3,000 mw in the next four years through various sources. The state has identified 150 locations where mini and micro hydroelectric projects could be set up. But the shortage for raw materials including coal and naphtha and other environmental issues are hindering the implementation of the projects, analysts added.
