Mangaluru: If a consumer fails to pay even a fraction of his electricity bill, the Electricity Supply Company (Escom) personnel would be at his doorstep, threatening to disconnect the power supply! But interestingly, several Escoms are yet to pay the Udupi Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) bills totalling over Rs 800 crore, which have remained pending for at least a year!
The coal-based power plant- UPCL situated near Padubidri in Udupi district, has two units of 600MW each, which produce approximately 1,200 MW. The power from UPCL is provided to the grid and supplied to various Escoms and contributes about 28 per cent of the total power requirement of Karnataka.
Sources say that there are huge sums due from various Escoms, amounting to over Rs 700 crore in the last one year alone with the maximum dues said to be from Hubballi Electicity Supply Company (Hescom) followed by Gescom (Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company). Despite pending dues, UPCL, a company owned by the Adani group, still continues to generate and provide electricity to the Escoms.
UPCL has two units of 600 mw each (total 1,200 MW) providing about 28 per cent of the total requirement of electricity of Karnataka state. However for the last three days the plant is functioning only half its capacity after the generator in the second unit of the plant developed a problem.
"Power generation continues in the first unit and the repair work is being undertaken in the other. The repair work is likely to be completed in about nine days. Power generation would be normal after that," UPCL Executive Director Kishore Alva told Deccan Chronicle.
He said that the plant had enough supply of coal and the power generation.
Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts have been facing power cuts since about three days for several hours. Power shortage in the state is said to be the reason.
Meanwhile activists in the coastal districts want elected representatives and the state government to ensure that the power produced in UPCL is provided to Mescom (Mangaluru Electricity Supply Company) first for supply to local areas and later transmitted to the Escoms for supply to distant places.
Echoing this view, Raitha Sangha state secretary and Dakshina Kannada(DK) district president Ravikiran Punacha said the demand of DK and Udupi district needs to be met first. "The plant is in our district. People of the region have lost their land for the plant. So the government should meet the demand of our district first and later supply power to others. At present, the power is provided to the grid and supplied to other districts first," Mr. Punacha said.
Others feel that rather than wasting power in transmission, it is better to meet the local demand first.
