The Hindu : Front Page : Loadshedding enforced in State

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Tuesday, Jul 15, 2008
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Loadshedding enforced in State

B.S. Satish Kumar

Weakening monsoon and low water-level in dams pushing KPTCL to the brink

BANGALORE: The power shortage assumed crisis proportions in the State on Monday. Depletion of storage at hydel resources and technical snag at a generating unit at the Raichur Thermal Power Station have aggravated the problem.

The power utilities resorted to unscheduled loadshedding throughout the State, including Bangalore. Many areas in Bangalore faced loadshedding from 90 minutes to two hours while it was for longer time in the rest of the State.

The State is facing shortage because of the weakening monsoon resulting in depletion of hydel resources. The problem became intense with two units of the RTPS with a capacity of 210 MW each stopping generation in the last two days. Of these, one unit was restarted on Monday. The other unit is shut for annual maintenance.

While this is only a temporary problem, what is worrying Karnataka Power Transmision Corporation Ltd. and the five electricity supply companies in the State is lack of sufficient rainfall in the catchment areas of the hydel reservoirs. Normally, the inflows to the hydel reservoirs in the State start in June when the south-west monsoon hits the State.

The storage in the three major hydel resources of the State is stated to be too low compared with that of last year. Linganamakki reservoir has a storage of only 19.47 per cent of its capacity as against 62.41 per cent during the same time last year. Supa has a storage of only 22.32 per cent (45.32 per cent last year) and Mani’s storage is 21.86 per cent (53.63 per cent last year).

At present, the State has been drawing around 48 million units of power from the hydel resources every day. The crisis will deepen further if there is no sufficient rainfall in the next 10 days.

The power consumption has increased by 13 to 15 million units a day compared with that during the same period last year. The State’s consumption stood at 117.12 million units on July 13 as against the consumption of 103.39 MUs recorded on the corresponding day in the previous year.

Top officials of the Energy Department held a meeting on Monday.

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