Karnataka - Bangalore

Rain brings some respite from power cut spells

BANGALORE: The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) relaxed power cut in Bangalore and other urban areas under its jurisdiction on a temporary basis in the past two days, following good rainfall, according to sources. But load shedding has been continuing in rural areas.

Though power consumption has reduced due to the good spell of rain, the power supply situation is still not out of danger. Bescom is reviewing the situation on a daily basis and taking decisions on power supply accordingly.

Sources said that the respite from power cuts was expected to continue for some more time as there was a likelihood of the rain continuing.

Earlier, power cut of two hours a day was enforced in Bangalore while other urban areas in the Bescom jurisdiction were facing a daily power cut of four to six hours.

Villages are going without power for nearly 13 hours a day. Meanwhile, no decision has been taken on lifting power cuts by the Cabinet sub-committee, which has been constituted to monitor the situation.

The rain in the past few days has reduced the daily power consumption of the State from 95 to 100 million units (MUs) a week ago to 83 MUs on Monday. It had dipped to 79 MUs on Sunday. The dip in consumption is being mainly attributed to the reduction in use of Irrigation Pump sets of farmers in the dry zones.

Karnataka has about 16 lakh IP sets, which account for about 30 per cent of the State’s total power consumption.

Following good rain, the State has stopped generation by two of its units with a capacity of 210 MW each at the Raichur Thermal Power Station. Power generation by Unit-7 was stopped on August 10, and that by Unit-6 on August 11.

Two other units are not working at the RTPS that has seven generating units. While Unit-I has been taken up for annual maintenance, Unit-2 has stopped generation from August 8 due to boiler tube leakage.

The three major hydel reservoirs of the State are getting good inflow due to rain in the catchment areas.

Linganamakki recorded an inflow of 87,802 cusecs of water on Monday while the inflow to the Supa and Mani reservoirs stood at 70,796 cusecs and 13,610 cusecs respectively, according to sources in the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited.

Compared with the previous year’s position, the water level in these reservoirs is still on the lower side. As on Monday, the storage in Linganamakki was 53.93 per cent (as against 97.58 per cent last year).

The storage in Supa was 44.91 per cent (72.22 per cent last year) and that in Mani 49.16 per cent (85.72 per cent last year).

The storage in these three reservoirs has to be sufficient enough to take care of hydel power generation till next June.

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