Minister for Energy D.K. Shivakumar said here on Tuesday that the State’s power situation has been comfortable and there will be no load-shedding in summer this year.
Addressing presspersons after a review meeting with department officials, he said that adequate arrangements had been made to ensure that there was no load-shedding this summer. Power generation and supply was more than the demand in March and April.
As much as 208 million units per day were made available against the demand of 168 million units per day on April 22, Mr. Shivakumar said.
Noting that there was adequate water storage in all the reservoirs to generate power and to ensure uninterrupted power supply till the arrival of monsoon, he said that there had been reduction in demand for power from the agriculture sector.
However, there could be one or two hours of power cut on account of repair works to be taken up by electricity supply companies.
Ruling out power cut in urban areas, he said that electricity supplying companies were providing 18 hours of power in rural areas — three phase for sevens hours and single phase for 11 hours.
The government had invoked Section 11 of the Electricity Act to make mandatory for private power generating companies to supply power to the State-owned electricity supply companies. As much as 450 MW of power was being purchased from these private firms daily. Wind energy production had increased and the State was drawing 450 MW of wind energy, he said.
On the Bharatiya Janata Party’s allegations that the Congress was “sacrificing the interests of the State for the sake of votes” by dropping the proposed Mekedatu hydel project across the Cauvery, Mr. Shivakumar said that the government would take all steps to protect the interests of the State.
But the government was not interested in a legal battle with Tamil Nadu, he added.
The Union government had sought a no-objection certificate from Tamil Nadu to help clear the State’s proposal, he said.
