Officials not 'live' to serious power crisis in State

Experts facing government interference

Power experts are convinced that the small-time measures to plug in the power shortage are not yielding adequate results. The State’s power scenario is going from bad to worse, as the planning by the technical personnel is reportedly facing too much interference from the  government. The experts’ advice is also not being taken seriously by the State, sources told Deccan Herald.

During a crisis like the present one, the Load Dispatch Centre (LDC) should be the one managing, say power officials. However, the Centre is now left ‘alone.’ “During 2002- 2003, when there was a similar situation, the LDC headed by Vijay Narasimha did a commendable job and saved Rs 700 crores through proper management. It was appreciated by the then State Government. The then Managing Director K N Srivastava supported the LDC chief by expressing full faith and cooperation as the job required 24X7 monitoring. But today, there is more interference from the State and the higher ups in the department,”  said an official source.

The LDC will be monitoring the daily load within the State as well as from the Central Grid. It plans consumption and suggests measures to reduce demands, by suggesting load shedding. “It is this section which can suggest when there should be load shedding and when it should not be. It is the same with the over drawing from Central grid. The Centre can feel the pulse of the system in either cases,” said power officials.

Electricity Act violated

According to the Electricity Act 2003, there is minimal scope for the State government to interfere, even under Section 11 related to the directions to generating companies and under Section 108 for making policy decision. But according to the power sector officials, today, the Government is interfering in every aspect connected with the sector.

The problem is so severe that the power sector, under the influence of government, has totally violated the Electricity Act  and has gone for short term measures. The usual procedures of Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) is abandoned. “According to the rules, PPAs, the long term agreements with the power generators is based on Availability Based Tariffs (ABT). But we do not see any such agreements because the companies prefer short term agreement, which is illegal. This has led to the escalation of cost of power in the recent days,” said a power expert.

Even the Power Review Committee formed in the early 2002 has now been kept idle. “We do not see them meeting these days, because there is no absolute planning, all that is coming is decisions taken top brass without consulting the engineers,” said a power sector official.

B G Rudrappa, former chairman, Karnataka Electricity Board (KEB), who is a member of the Review Committee says that the committee comprising MDs of all Electricity Supply Companies and KPTCL exists but is not too active. “ It is not abolished, but it does not meet regularly, it would have made a difference if things were planned properly after a careful review from December onwards and could have balanced equitably,” he said.

However he said that he is optimistic about rains as July and August are crucial months. 

“One lakh cusecs of inflow is sufficient to plan for the future, but we should be careful to plug in thefts and unauthorised IP sets,” he said.