Karnataka   

Eshwarappa hopes power shortage will ease

— PHOTO: M.A.SRIRAM

Optimistic: Minister for Energy K.S. Eshwarappa inaugurating 34th Annual Conference of the Karnataka Electricity Board Engineers’ Association at Kadakola, near Mysore, on Sunday.

MYSORE: Energy Minister K.S. Eshwarappa hopes that the power shortage will be overcome by the end of the year by commissioning new projects and bringing down the transmission and distribution losses.

Speaking after inaugurating the 34th Annual Conference of the Karnataka Electricity Board Engineers’ Association at Kadakola on the outskirts of the city on Sunday, he said the installed capacity in the State was 5,500 MW against the requirement of 9,300 MW.

If the 2,500 MW of power, which was obtained from the Central grid was taken into account, the power deficit worked out to 1,300 MW.

He said the thermal power plant at Toranagal in Bellary district, which generates 500 MW, was ready for commissioning.

“The Toranagal project should have been commissioned last year itself, but got delayed. Efforts will be made to commission it in the next 15 days,” he said.

The Minister said the State would also be adding around 250 MW of power through the Varahi project by November. Besides, an additional 250 MW was expected from renewable energy sources like wind, solar and other means. If 1,000 MW of power materialises from Toranagal, Varahi and renewable energy sources by the end of the year, the electricity deficit in the State would come down to 300 MW, he said.

This deficit could be overcome by bringing down the transmission and distribution losses by 5 per cent from the existing 32 per cent to 27 per cent.

Mr. Eshwarappa said the BJP Government was committed to providing free power to irrigation pump sets of 10 hp capacity. However, he favoured installation of meters to all irrigation pump sets, which are estimated around 17 lakh in the state, to measure the power used. A meeting of farmers’ representatives with the Chief Minister had been convened in Bangalore on July 1 to discuss power-related issues affecting the farmers.

However, the announcement on free power to farmers would be made in the State budget. Earlier, president of KEB Engineers’ Association B.N. Satyapremakumar urged the Minister to rectify the anomalies in the pay structure of engineers, recruited during 2003 and 2006.

Managing Director of Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Company Vijayanarasimha said the number of complaints over faulty billing had come down after the company began issuing computerised bills.

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