Using more power? Bescom will come knocking at your door

The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom), in an unprecedented move, has launched an awareness-cum-inspection drive to help reduce the pressure on the power grid during peak hours. 

According to Bescom, the City, a major power guzzler, has around 4.5 lakh commercial establishments which record illegal power consumption of 12 per cent. 

Starting February 11, around 100 teams belonging to 150 sub-divisions have been visiting commercial establishments across the City to ascertain whether each customer is drawing power more than the sanctioned load. 

The target is to inspect 900 installations everyday between 6 pm and 9 pm.

What’s also unique about the drive is that the entire workforce of Bescom has volunteered to work overtime - without demanding any incentive.

Chief Engineer Bescom Ashok Angadi told Deccan Herald that the company was particular not to effect load-shedding this summer. 

“To avoid load-shedding, we decided to launch a drive that will help bring down the load during peak hours. Teams have begun to visit individual installations. If the owner is found to be consuming more than the sanctioned power, he/she will be issued a notice to immediately regularise the consumption,” he added.

Teams of five officials comprising assistant engineer and joint engineer and three linemen, headed by an assistant executive engineer will go door to door in commercial areas after their office hours.

C K Sreenath, Assistant Executive Engineer, E-3 sub-division, MG Road, who inspected installations on Church Street on Friday, said that the teams were given a set format to work with. 

He said so far his team had visited around 100 of 41,600 installations in his sub-division, and that around 10 per cent of the consumers were found to be flouting the norms.

“Of the 20 installations we visit every day, two to three of them have been drawing additional power. We tabulate the power consumed, verify it with the information available with us, and issue a notice to the violator the following day. We give them 30 days to regularise the excess consumption, or stop the usage. In the event the consumer fails to abide by this, officials have been instructed to disconnect the entire installation,” he said.

Sreenath said the exercise was turning out to be rather effective. 

“Initially, we were very apprehensive – we weren’t sure if the consumers would cooperate. At first, they are a little wary, but once we tell them the intention behind the exercise, they are very cooperative. We are in a crisis, but load-shedding should stop becoming the only solution to the problem,” he added.

Sreenath also said high power consumers like ITC Gardenia and UB City had set the ball rolling by cooperating with Bescom. 

“ITC which consumes 2000 KV power, has agreed to cut down the usage by 50 per cent during the evening peak hours, and UB City too has agreed to bring down its consumption from 5.5 MW to 3 MW everyday. This has really eased in on the situation,” he added.

Facebook 

Bescom is not stopping at conducting inspections drives. The company, which has its own profile on Facebook, has in fact started making appeals to the consumers through the social networking sites.

Bescom in its appeal has requested its consumers to a) reduce lighting in parking and yard areas; b) stop using downward escalators; c) use captive power during peak hours; d) reduce decorative lights; and e) reduce lighting in advertisement hoardings.