BENGALURU: Bescom is debating when to cut power supply: on working days or weekends. Long outages are in store in areas where the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd is augmenting substations and upgrading transmission lines.
With work being taken up across the city, the frequency of scheduled power cuts is expected to go up in the coming months.
Currently, opinion is divided on whether weekdays or weekends are the best time to issue line-clear instructions, Bescom MD Pankaj Kumar Pandey said on Wednesday. Engineers cannot work on live lines, and are waiting for switched-off lines.
Last week, a line-clear issued for HAL and its vicinity combined with heavy rain resulted in users going without power all day. On the other hand, line-clears on weekends leave consumers without power supply on their days off.
KPTCL plans to carry out works to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore in the city this year.
Demand for power in Bengaluru is rising by 10-12 per cent every year as compared to 8 per cent in the rest of the state. “We will soon decide on when to cut power,” Pandey said. By his reckoning, Yelahanka and surrounding areas will have to put up with power cuts for 50-60 days.
“We have asked KPTCL to fast track the work and they have asked for 50-60 days. For other major lines across the city, it will take six months,” he said.
He was speaking at a ceremony to inaugurate a grid-connected solar power plant at Chinnaswamy Stadium. The cricket stadium will now generate 1.3 MW of power and can supply 4 lakh units a year.
“Our bills used to be about Rs 1.2 crore a year. We are now the first cricket stadium in the world to have such a facility,” said Brijesh Patel, secretary, Karnataka State Cricket Association.
No Privatisation: Energy Minister D K Shivakumar on Wednesday said there was no question of privatising energy supply firms. “Not in our state. There is no question of Escoms being taken over by private companies,” he said.