BANGALORE: The inordinate delay by the coalition partners to decide on whether to enforce load shedding in the State or to purchase electricity at exhorbitant cost to tide over power shortage has forced the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) to resort to unscheduled load shedding in rural areas as a temporary measure.

Sources in the KPTCL told The Hindu that unscheduled load shedding of short durations was being enforced in rural areas during peak hours as and when the power consumption exceeded the total availability of power from different generating sources.

Such a measure was a must to prevent collapse of the State power grid when the demand had far exceeded the availability, sources said. The daily power consumption in the State is now hovering around 120 million units as against the availability of 115-117 million units.

Independent sources

Although the KPTCL had been trying to increase the availability to 120 million units by increasing its procurement from independent power producers and other generating sources, the actual power consumption could well shoot up to 130 million units if load shedding was not enforced, sources said.

Unscheduled load shedding was enforced for a short duration in rural areas on Monday morning as there was a shortfall of about 200 MW, sources said.

Sources in the KPTCL said on Tuesday that there was the possibility of load shedding being enforced towards late in the evening as the consumption was increasing steadily.

"As and when the power consumption shoots up beyond availability, we inform all the power stations in the rural areas of the State to resort to load shedding.

It would be enforced only in those areas where the revenue recovery is poor," sources said. They said that the cities and towns had been spared from this temporary load shedding that was being enforced informally.

With an unprecedented increase in power consumption expected in the coming summer months, the State is set to face a huge shortage of 15 to 23 million units a day.

To tide over the problem, the State has to spend an additional Rs. 200-250 crore a month to buy power at high cost till the onset of monsoon in June. Hence, the State Cabinet that met on December 28 had decided to constitute a sub-committee under the chairmanship of Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa to decide whether to enforce load shedding or to spend nearly Rs. 1,000 crore till June to buy power.

The committee had been given a two-day deadline starting December 29 to take a decision.

No discussion yet

But the committee is yet to discuss the power scenario, let alone take a decision, as Mr. Yediyurappa has refused to head this panel citing his busy schedule. But it is said that he had opted out of the committee to escape from being blamed for the hard decisions.

The chairman of the committee as well as his party will attract the anger of people if it decides to enforce load shedding.

But arranging for huge finances to the tune of Rs. 800-1000 crore to prevent load shedding is also a tough task. Hence the coalition partners are dilly-dallying over taking a decision on the power scenario.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail