Energy Minister Shobha Karandlaje on Monday expressed fear that power supply situation was bound to worsen if the State did not get good spells of rains within a month.
“The storage position in the three hydel reservoirs is very low and we are bound to face serious problems if it does not rain within a month,” the Minister said while replying to Bharatiya Janata Party member D.S. Veeraiah during Question Hour in the Legislative Council.
She pointed out that Linganamakki hydel reservoir had a storage of only about 30 tmcft as against the storage level of 80 tmcft during the corresponding period of previous year.
She expressed concern that the problem was getting complex as the demand for power was increasing sharply at a time when the hydel storage was almost getting emptied. “The demand for power has increased by about 24 per cent compared with the previous year’s level,” she said.
“A situation may arise where we may have to depend mainly on power purchases from other States if the rains continue to play truant,” Ms. Karandlaje said.
But the option of buying power from outside was also getting blurred as there was no availability of power corridor (power transmission lines with a suitable capacity) for getting power from northern grid to the State, she noted.
To a query by Congress member Veeranna Mathikatti, Ms. Karandlaje said there were plans to develop 150 to 180 villages as solar villages this year by the Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited. Under this scheme, these villages would be helped to tap solar energy. Solar street lights would be installed besides providing solar water pumps for lifting groundwater from shallow borewells, she said.
She said the second unit of the Bellary Thermal Power Station was expected to commence full-fledged generation from August first week. The commissioning of the new unit, which was earlier scheduled to be done on February 23, was getting delayed due to problems in coal-linkage, she noted.
