The Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. (KPTCL) has resorted to “emergency load-shedding” in Mandya district since Wednesday owing to a shortfall in power generation in the State.
A senior official at KPTCL, on the condition of anonymity, told The Hindu the power allocation to the district stood at about 2.5 million units a day against the requirement of nearly 4.45 million units.
Consequently, the KPTCL on Wednesday introduced the “emergency load shedding” in urban areas and “unscheduled power shutdown” in rural areas, he said.
“The power generation at the thermal power stations in Bellary and Raichur has come down drastically owing to maintenance works. Therefore, we are forced to introduce load-shedding. The duration of load-shedding in rural areas is 10 hours a day and in urban areas about two hours a day,” the official said.
The Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC) and the KPTCL officials agreed that the situation in rural parts of the district had worsened owing to power cut.
“We have been maintaining six-hour shutdown for three-phase power connections and eight hours for single-phase connections in rural areas,” an assistant executive engineer of CESC said.
In the event of any improvement in the power generation, the KPTCL would reduce the duration of load shedding in the district, the officials said.
More timeMeanwhile, people in many villages claim that the power is going off for 12 to 14 hours a day.
“Power cut in the evening hours has severely hit the students. Besides, farmers are not getting enough power to use their irrigation pump sets,” Nanjaiah from Thimmana Hosuru, who is apprehensive of losing his standing paddy crops, told The Hindu.
Owners worriedOwners of rice mills and “alemane”, the traditional jaggery-making units, said that they were worried about running their units with unscheduled power cuts.
“We are not getting sufficient power to run our units,” Mahadeva, owner of an alemane on Mandya-Melkote Road, said.
Power stationsThe district has 220-kV power stations at Thubinakaere, K.R. Pet and Thorekadana Halli and 66-kV substations at 43 places in the district.
