BENGALURU: Energy Minister KJ George on Saturday said the state is not facing any power cuts as there is no dearth of electricity. There have been interruptions in power supply because of ongoing maintenance works. There is also sufficient power for farmers’ irrigation pumpsets, he added.
He said thermal power generation units across the state have coal stocks for 28 days and local coal is being mixed with imported coal by 30 per cent. The state is also generating a sufficient amount of power from wind and solar sources, he added.
Power is being generated on a pilot basis at the Yelahanka combined gas power plant and from Bidadi’s waste-to-energy power plant of 370MW and 11.5MW, respectively.
He announced the inauguration of the Yelahanka Combined Gas Power Plant by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on September 24. George said the state has 34 lakh farmers, who are using pumpsets of up 10 HP pumpsets and are being given free power. Of them, 95.4% have already linked their pumpsets with Aadhaar cards. On rest of the farmers opposing Aadhaar linking, he said the issue will be discussed in the cabinet and Siddaramaiah will take the final decision.
He said the initial work on the pumped storage project in Sharavathi has started. The project requires 54 acres of forest land and clearance is needed from the forest department, state and national board for wildlife, he added.
Additional Chief Secretary Gaurav Gupta said that more such waste-to-energy and combined energy power plants can be set up, but the capital and operation and maintenance costs are high. Also, quality waste is required to generate power.
Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Managing Director, Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited, said that to channelise power generation and supply, pilot studies using artificial intelligence have also started.
