The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Load-shedding in State from today

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Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Load-shedding in State from today

Staff Reporter

Rural areas will have power for 12 hours only

Load-shedding will be for one hour in Bangalore
State generating 40 million units from hydel sources

K.S. Eshwarappa

Bangalore: Load-shedding will come into effect from Tuesday.

While Bangaloreans will face one hour load-shedding, residents of other urban areas will have to endure four hours power cuts daily.

The rural areas will be the worst hit with only 12 hours of power supply.

The decision to impose load-shedding was taken here on Monday at a review meeting on power, chaired by Energy Minister K.S. Eshwarappa.

Gap

“There is a gap between demand and generation. We wanted to adjust the available power by imposing load-shedding in the State,” the Minister told The Hindu.

He said that the decision to impose load-shedding in Bangalore was taken for the first time.

“Rural areas will receive single phase supply for six hours and three phase for six hours,” the Minister pointed out.

He said: “The demand for power has increased by 12.5 per cent over the last year. Last year, the State was generating 105 million units a day. This year, the generation has increased to 118 million units. However, the demand has also increased. Currently, the demand stands at around 130 million units.”

Mr. Eshwarappa said that the State was generating 40 million units from hydel sources, given the good rains and storage in the State reservoirs.

“Last year during the same period, the State generated only 28 million units due to poor rainfall.”

Coal stock

Asked if the State was imposing load-shedding because of poor coal stock at the Raichur Thermal Power Station and Bellary Thermal Power Station, the Minister said that there was no problem with regard to the coal stocks.

He said the State did not want to generate more than 40 million units from its hydel sources, as it wanted the storage to last through the summer.

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