Stop unscheduled power cuts, say people

Senthalir S / TNN / Sep 30, 2011, 12:19 IST

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"The unscheduled power cut of nearly eight hours has affected my work. I cannot even recharge the USP. "

BANGALORE: "The unscheduled power cut of nearly eight hours has affected my work. I cannot even recharge the USP. We have made several attempts to call the Bescom office but no one answers the call,'' said Dapati Sinha, a resident of Horamavu Main Road, who also runs a consultancy firm, on Wednesday.

People are demanding that Bescom announce power cuts so that they can plan their day. As per rules, Bescom is supposed to inform the public before carrying out load-shedding.
KERC chairman MR Sreenivasa Murthy said that the electricity supply companies have the leverage to carry out load-shedding in unexpected situations. But they have to inform public that they were facing a problem in power supply and hence the power cuts.
Bescom MD P Manivannan said: ''If the power generating industries inform us how much power they will be able to supply, we will be able to announce the load-shedding schedule. Otherwise, it is difficult to announce the schedule.''
Officially, Bescom is resorting to three hours of load-shedding at different slots throughout the day. However, the situation seems to be worse in the rural areas as they are facing nearly four hours of power cut.

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Sridhar Prabhu, energy expert and advocate handling power issues, said to tide over the crisis, Bescom should approach KERC seeking public hearing on this issue.
KERC has to institute proceedings under Section 23 of Electricity Act if the electricity supply companies (escoms) are taking up load-shedding, he said. "Electricity regulatory commissions across the country have taken up these cases legally and apportioned the power supply depending on the availability. This has to be done even here. Either Bescom has to approach KERC seeking help legally or KERC should initiate suo motu proceedings and hear this issue.''

With Bescom area facing a shortage of 500 to 600MW, the company has written to KERC seeking to purchase 27,000 million units of energy.
But it says the cost of power has shot up with the increase in demand. The power purchase cost during evening peak hours between 6pm and 10pm has increased from Rs 4 to Rs 9 per unit on Wednesday. So Bescom says it is unable to purchase power at this prohibitive cost. And so the power shortage continues.
Bangalore City alone is facing a shortage of 500 to 600MW during peak hours every day. "Even though we had placed an order for 500MW, we received only 200MW on Wednesday afternoon at Rs 4.50 per unit as it is non-peak hours," Manivannan said.
He added that the exchange has now become a sellers' market. "Not all power industries go to the exchange to sell power, this has created artificial power scarcity. With the increase in demand for power in the southern states, the prices have shot up,'' he said.
TIME TARIFF
Manivannan said they were planning to make time-of-the-day tariff mandatory. "We have filed a petition before KERC regarding this. The time of the day tariff would mean higher rate for power during peak hours and relatively lower rate for non-peak hours. Besides, we are also planning to make pre-paid meters compulsory," he said.

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