BENGALURU: The Energy Department has decided to go for power rationing as the State is facing an extraordinary situation of demand for electricity due to the failure of monsoon.
The department will soon list priority and non-priority consumers for the purpose. To overcome the shortage, the State Government has initiated steps to purchase electricity from other States.
According to officials of the department, the peak demand for October is 15000 MW compared to 12,000 MW for the same period last year. The State is facing a deficit in generation of 1500-2000 MW. “Power supply will be reduced to farmers’ irrigation pumpsets.
There will be restrictions on supply of electricity to consumers under schemes such as Nirantar Jyothi. There will be no reduction in power supply to industries, hospitals and other essential services. However, there will be a reduction in supply to domestic consumers,” a senior official from the department told The New Indian Express.
Managing Director of KPTCL Pankaj Kumar Pandey said that to mitigate the crisis, all non-essential loads will be identified and power supplied on priority basis.
Additional Secretary (Energy Department) Gaurav Gutpa said nodal officers of the rank of CEE (chief executive engineer) will monitor power supply in each district. These nodal officers will monitor supply of electricity sanctioned to 220KV stations.
According to Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (Bescom), the demand on October 6 was 7,386MW in Bescom limits and 3,645MW in Bengaluru city alone. On the same date, the demand in Karnataka was 15,012MW as against 9,032MW recorded during the period in 2022.
Now to meet the demand, the State is planning to purchase power. It has held negotiations with Uttar Pradesh for 300 to 600MW during pre-solar and post-solar hours from October to May 2024.
‘Generation dips to 800MW at Pavagada’
An arrangement has also been finalised with Punjab for supply of 500MW from November to May 2024.
In August, the State recorded a demand for 17,000 MW on August 25. In September, however, the situation was better because of the scattered rainfall. With the demand increasing from various sectors, especially from farmers, the focus now is on thermal power generation.
“Due to cloudy weather, power generation dipped to 800MW at Pavagada solar park. Power generation from wind projects dropped to 400 MW from the usual 2000MW. There is a shortage of 2000 MW of renewable sources. Hence, importance is being given to thermal power generation.
Currently, the State gets 7000MW from thermal projects and through power purchases. The State generates 1953MW from its three thermal projects,” the official said.