Bengaluru: In the most damning comment on the unscheduled power cuts that have brought the city’s IT-BT-industrial hub to a grinding halt, the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) on Monday has advised the government to immediately address issues related to Raichur and Ballari thermal power plants, which suffer repeated breakdowns, cut transmission and commercial losses from 19% to 10%, and invest in renewable energy sources.
The Chamber recommended that state government should increase the short-term purchase of power as an immediate measure to ensure that the scheduled load shedding hours are reduced. It also appealed to the government to expedite the option of privatisation of power distribution which would enable unbundling of power sector by separating generation and transmission. The government should take an urgent decision on wind power generation projects as only 2,500 mw is being generated, though approvals have been given for 12,000 mw.
All delayed projects should stand cancelled. The energy ministry should make the renewable energy policy more attractive and amend the Karnataka Land Act to allow land owners to rent or lease their properties for wind power projects. The remaining farm land can be used for agricultural activities, BCIC said.
Power cuts: Down from 4 to 3 hours
As the overall power production in the state has “considerably improved” in the last few days, Bescom has informed that there will be an hour of reduction in the load shedding in Bengaluru city. “The load shedding of four hours for residential and two hours for industrial/commercial consumers was imposed due to major power generation outages.
Now, both units of UPCL (1100MW) have come back on grid and are generating consistently, plus, one unit of BTPS (430MW) has also started generating power steadily. In addition to this, the State is also getting improved support from wind power (350MW) generating units,” said Bescom spokesperson. For revised timings log on to www.bescom.org.
