BENGALURU: For Bengalureans fed up with unscheduled power cuts, this may be good news. The city will soon get additional power supply from a gas- based 350 MW power plant at Yelahanka that is likely to become operational in about a month.
Disclosing this to reporters here on Wednesday, Energy Minister, D K Shivakumar said although the power plant was scheduled for inauguration a month ago, technical and operational glitches had come in the way and it would now become operational in a month.
The Minister claimed the state was self sufficient in power production, despite its troubles with coal supply. " Union Minister, Piyush Goel has promised to help Karnataka out and the department has already floated tenders to get coal supply from private players," he revealed, adding that there would be no load-shedding at any cost during the coming elections and examinations.
"When the Congress government took over, the state had a capacity to generate 14030 MW of power , but during the last three- and- a- half years another 10,580 MW have been added. The transmission and distribution loss has drastically fallen and it is one of the best managed sectors in India today. The transmission loss has come down from 3.882 per cent to 3.228 per cent, and distribution loss from 15.3 per cent to 13.34 per cent. Over 39 per cent of the power is being supplied to farmers," Mr Shivakumar said.
Meanwhile, the Energy Department is also promoting green power by involving farmers and investors in joint ventures . A 7,000 acre plot has been earmarked in Pavagada, next to the present solar power park, and another 6,000 acres in Ron Assembly constituency for a joint venture to produce around 4000 MW of green energy.
"The power generated will be channelised to the Central grid, but will be available to the state in case of emergency," the Minister explained.
