The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘Bangaloreans need not worry about power cuts’

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Wednesday, Mar 26, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘Bangaloreans need not worry about power cuts’

Chitra V. Ramani

The rains have helped bring down power consumption
KPTCL to buy
100 MW of power from Jindal Power

Bangalore: There was a time when power cuts and summer were synonymous. Students would literally have to sweat through exam time, suffer the suffocating heat and go without television.

Fortunately, much has changed since then and power-enabledc omforts have made life easier. “We are in a comfortable position. The rains have helped bring down power consumption. Bangaloreans need not worry about power shutdown during the summer months,” Tushar Girinath, Managing Director, BESCOM, told The Hindu.

Dismissing the likelihood of power shortage in April and May, he said that the summer season was almost halfway through.

“Summers for Bangalore are the months of April and May. For BESCOM, however, the summer season starts from the end of February to mid-April. Owing to unseasonable rain, the use of irrigation pumpsets has reduced, which has helped lessen power consumption,” he said.

Hydel energy

The rain has also helped the State conserve its hydel energy for use later.

Promising no unscheduled cuts in Bangalore, Mr. Girinath said,

“Even in the peak of summer, we did not enforce power shutdown in Bangalore. However, we did undertake ‘technical cuts’ in rural areas. This was taken up to reduce overloading and avoid possible tripping,” he said.

The duration of the “technical cuts” was less than before, as BESCOM had stepped up the feeder management system.

“We try to maintain the power load by shutting down feeders coming under a particular sub-station on rotation. This is to avoid total black-out. This has proved to be an effective way to manage the power load,” he said.

Future plans

To tide over any likely shortage of power in the summer months, the Karnataka Power Transmission Company Limited (KPTCL) had entered into an agreement with Jindal Power. KPTCL will buy about 100 MW of power during April and May at Rs. 7 a unit.

The Centre has also agreed to restore the supply of 100 MW from the unallocated share of the central generating stations, which had been withdrawn a couple of months ago.

“A large percentage of the power purchased from Jindal will be allotted to BESCOM. The company gets preference owing to its large number of customers in all sections — agriculture, industry and domestic. We try to strike a balance in order to provide the best service to all our customers,” he said.

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