Bengaluru: The Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) have been planning load-shedding during peak hours staring from Monday August 24.
Speaking to a daily, a Bescom officials, said that load-shedding would be imminent if power generation does not pick up by Sunday. “We will have to shed around 200 to 300 MW of load per day on rotation basis. This means one to two hours of power cuts every day. Though we have not drawn up a schedule, we will have to impose electricity cuts in batches,” a senior official said.
On Saturday, one unit of the Raichur Thermal Power Station (RTPS) and one of the Ballari TPS (BTPS) as well as both units of the Udupi Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) power plants did not generate any power. This means a shortfall of 1,920 MW. Besides this, the second unit of BTPS (500 MW) was functioning at reduced capacity.
UPCL units were expected to come on stream on August 20 and 21, but these deadlines were missed. The second BTPS unit is expected to generate power at full capacity from Sunday, according to the official.
However power cuts are already being enforced in rural areas catered to by Bescom, with Kolar and Malur being the most affected places, and the city is next in the line if the thermal power stations units do not start generating powerby Sunday, the official added.
Residential consumers will be the first to bear the brunt, followed by commercial and industrial consumers if the situation continues or worsens.
On the other hand reports also state that the State government may have directed Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) to ensure effective power supply till Saturday, the day of polling for the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike elections.
Bescom Managing Director Pankaj Kumar Pande, attributed them to local problems and denied that the company had resorted to load-shedding. He said the government had been drawing up a plan to conduct scheduled load-shedding, including in Bengaluru.
“Now that we have completed the process of power purchase from the open market, a plan will be chalked out for load-shedding in a day or two. It will be finalised based on the shortage and availability,” he said.
