The Hindu : Front Page : Bangalore’s industrial areas to have staggered holiday

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Thursday, Oct 16, 2008
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Bangalore’s industrial areas to have staggered holiday

B.S. Satish Kumar

The measure is likely to be introduced in a week

The system would mean units having weekly holiday on different days
This is expected to reduce power consumption on weekdays by about 150 MW

BANGALORE: The staggered holiday for industrial areas in the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) region is expected to be introduced in a week to ensure availability of adequate power during peak hours so as to maintain uninterrupted supply in Bangalore.

Sources in the government said that such a system would relieve Bangalore of loadshedding as the power load would be spread out throughout the week instead of the present system where the demand increases sharply during week days, but drastically reduces on Sundays.

Staggered holiday would mean that the industries in different areas would have weekly holidays on different days instead of all the industries closing down on Sunday. This is expected to reduce the consumption on weekdays by about 150 MW which in turn would help manage the power supply in Bangalore without loadshedding, the sources explained.

The modalities of introducing staggered holiday are being worked out. The Cabinet is learnt to have cleared the proposal a few months ago, but it was not enforced then as the power situation improved with several areas of the State receiving good rainfall.

However, the plan is being implemented now as the rainy season is coming to an end. Power consumption, which had reduced to about 95 million units for sometime due to the recent rains in various parts of the State, has now touched 102.8 mu. Though this is manageable, the consumption is expected to go up further once the dry spell starts. It is feared that the power supply situation will aggravate from next month itself.

The five electricity supply companies in the State and the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited are planning to buy additional power to tide over the shortage that is bound to arise in the next few months.

But as many of the States are facing power shortage, buying power will be a costly exercise. “We need to shell out more than Rs. 9 a unit to buy additional power as against our average power procurement price of around Rs. 3. This is bound to affect our financial position also,” a senior official said.

The ESCOMs have now decided to buy additional power at least in the night (non-peak hours) to save the State’s hydel energy resources for summer. But even power during non-peak hours is being quoted at Rs. 8 a unit, the sources added.

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