BANGALORE: Energy and Civil Supplies Minister Shobha Karandlaje on Friday stated that Unit 2 of the Bellary Thermal Power Station (BTPS) with a capacity of 500 MW would start producing power in the next 15 days.
She added the coal supply had been secured from Coal India Limited (CIL). “We have a letter from CIL. The coal will reach in 15 days. We expect to take the unit online after May second week,” she told reporters at a press conference here.
Stating that the consumption across state had risen by 16 to 17 per cent as compared to last year, Shobha said that this year, the state saw a maximum peak load of 8,526 MW or 176 million units. However, the demand over the past few days has been reduced to 140 MU owing to pre-monsoon showers across the state. “We have planned to generate 50 MU of power everyday from hydel sources till 31 June. But currently we are generating about 19 MU due to low demand,” she said.
The minister also stated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised to look into the state’s demand of a separate corridor between northern and southern states of India for power evacuation. The current corridor permits up to 750 MW of power to be evacuated from northern states. It is perpetually booked by Tamil Nadu leaving no chance for Karnataka to evacuate power, said Shobha. “The Prime Minis remained non-committal on a policy change for procurement of coal from Chattisgarh for six power plants across the state,” she said.
Shobha stated the focus this year would be to obtain clearance for around 119 stations. Owing to reduction in the demand in the past few days, all ESCOMS increased the supply of three phase electricity to villages from six to nine hours. The ESCOMs are providing single phase power supply between 6 pm and 6 am.
“We have arranged to get power from Gujarat after the monsoon. The power will be useful in September,” Shobha said.