Unscheduled power cuts to continue in district

Situation grim; Escoms pin hope on UPCL and BTPS

Reduced power generation by 2,000 MW in power plants of the State from the past week, has resulted in unscheduled power cuts in areas under Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation Limited.

While the power demand of Cesc is about 950-1,000 MW per day, the Corporation was being supplied less power than required, resulting in a crisis.

Bhagya Naik, Director (Technical), Cesc said that, as a result there has been load shedding of three hours in Mysore city limits. “Power cuts are being effected for an hour in the morning, noon and night. In rural areas, load shedding is more acute,” he said.

Three-phase power is being supplied for two hours during the day, and three hours during the night in rural areas, he said. The 24 hour power supply to town feeders had also been affected, he said.

“Despite the power demand, we have been allocated only 600-630 MW of power on Wednesday and 550 MW power for Thursday,” he said. It has been a week since the decline in power generation. However, the problem of power supply aggravated from Tuesday, he added.

He said that the situation would improve, when Udupi Power Corporation Limited and Bellary Thermal Power Station increased their generation.

On hydel power generation in Cesc limits, he said that due to sparse rainfall, in-flow to the reservoirs was low, and the dams did not have enough water to aid power generation. Adding that shortage of rainfall also increased power demand, he said that situation would deteriorate if it does not rain during the week.

Grievances meet

The Cesc grievances meet held at Central sub-division office, here on Wednesday was met with a lukewarm response. The meeting scheduled to be held from 11 am to 1 pm did not attract many complaints.

One of the complaints was regarding a transformer for agricultural pump-sets, at Mosanbayanahalli of Mysore taluk, which had broken down 15 days ago. Sujendra, a resident of the village complained that the delay in repairing the transformer had caused problems to sugarcane cultivators.

Madesh, Assistant Executive Engineer, Cesc said that the problem would be sorted out during the next two days. Officials present at the meeting said that most of the problems regarding transformers of agricultural pump-sets were due to illegal connections, which increased the load on the transformer. Due to such practices, transformers eventually break down, they said.

Another complaint regarding errors in bill payment, was also raised in the meeting. Madesh said that it was an isolated issue, and would be sorted out soon