With Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) already seeing a record peak in demand (4,500 MW) this week, Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation (KPTCL) too reported meeting a peak load of 9,400 MW for the State on Friday. During February 2014, this figure stood at 9,223 MW, said G. Kumar Naik, KPTCL’s Managing Director.
Bengaluru accounts for nearly 50 per cent of this, he said and cited increasing population as one of the reasons. “We expect it to go up to 9,500 MW,” he said.
Citing a revenue gap of Rs. 255.99 crore in 2014-15 fiscal from transmission tariff, out of which Rs. 130.49 crore was from Operations and Management, KPTCL has sought the KERC to allow recovery of the losses from the Escoms in 2015-16.
“We are also asking for the commission to approve the actual annual revenue requirement (Rs. 2,580.37 for 2013-14),” Mr. Naik said.
PAC, AAP participate
Bangalore Political Action Committee (BPAC) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) made their presence felt during the hearing.
Making a case for more information on bills, T.V. Mohandas Pai, vice-president, BPAC, said consumers had the right to know how much of their money was going as subsidy to farmers and other schemes.
“KERC has, for many years, taken the middle path and this has not worked. The government is ignoring the consumers. You (KERC) have been helping an inefficient company,” he said, opposing the proposed tariff hike.
AAP also questioned Bescom about the Rs. 1 crore expenditure cited as being spent on consumer awareness, alleging that no programmes had been taken up.
