Parts of State reel under power crisis

The power situation in some parts of the State, particularly in coastal and Malnad regions, is still grim, while it hasd been improving in other areas since Sunday.

The State has been facing a power shortage in the past few days owing to a dip in power generation, compelling some Escoms to resort to load-shedding.

Both the units of Udupi Power Corporation Ltd (UPCL) are currently not functioning to their full capacity.

“One unit is picking up and the other is yet to pick up generation,” said top sources in the Energy department.

Apart from this, two units of Raichur Thermal Power Station (RTPS) are also not functioning. While in Bellary Thermal Power Station, one unit is generating 450 MW as against its 500-MW capacity and the second unit is completely shut down.

As far as Bescom is concerned, there is a shortage of 600 MW, according to officials. However, there will be no unscheduled load-shedding in Bangalore, said Bescom Director (Technical) Nagesh.

Shortage in power generation in RTPS and UPCL has badly hit Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Chikmagalur and Shimoga districts that come under Mangalore Electricity Supply Company (Mescom).

Mescom facing  shortageSpeaking to Deccan Herald, Mescom Managing Director M Govindappa said power cut was inevitable due to shortage of electricity supplied to Mescom from both the stations. “We are in such a difficult position even to plan out the power cut. At present we are going for power cuts for one-hour a day in rural and urban areas, which might continue in the days to come. We are working based on the instructions that we have been receiving from KPTCL, Bangalore,” he said.

Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company (Gescom) will resort to unscheduled load-shedding if there arises an emergency due to major outages in the thermal plants and during the remaining times, there will be no problem, said Gescom Director (Technical) M Mahadev.
On an average, the company needs about 960 MW per day and the present availability is 940 MW. The company could manage if 950 MW was made available. It has been maintaining six-hour supply to IP sets and 12-hour supply in rural areas.

In Mysore, Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation Ltd (CESC), was in a spot of bother too, due to technical problems at two units of UPCL. However, CESC officials said that power shortage was a temporary problem in the region.

M Shanthi, Chief Engineer, CESC, said: “There were power cuts only for a couple of days last week, till Sunday.”  She said that the average daily power demand for CESC was around 950 MW. On Monday, there was a supply of 600 MW.

The situation is better in areas served by Hubli Electricity Supply Company (Hescom), as the company is not resorting to load-shedding since last two days.

“Electricity supply was restored from Sunday; both in rural and urban areas, are now getting power supply as usual. There was unscheduled loadshedding till Saturday,” said Hescom General Manager (Technical) Krishnamurthy.