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Poor monsoon has taken a toll on hydro power generation in Karnataka. The total storage in the three major hydel reservoirs of Linganmakki, Mani and Supa can generate 4,020 million units of electricity (MUs), which is 46.26 per cent of capacity, as against 6,573 MUs (75.65 per cent) in 2014 and 7,892 MUs (90.82 per cent) in 2013 on the same day.
“The State’s hydel storage has decreased by 2,553 MUs compared with 2014 and 3,872 MUs compared with 2013,” said P Ravikumar, Additional Chief Secretary at the Energy department.
Power availability “The State has an installed capacity of 10,189 MW from the conventional sources, but the present availability is only 6,600 to 7,300 MW from all the sources due to breakdown in State and Central generating units and reduced hydro availability,” he explained.
The State witnessed loss to the extent of 3,020 MW from State and Central generating stations this month due to outages in UPCL, RTPS, and BTPS.
The UPCL plant with a capacity of 1,200 MW remains shut on technical grounds.
Demand-supply gap Ravikumar said, “As against ESCOMs’ average requirement of 184 MUs , only 168 MUs are supplied. Also against the State peak demand of 8,500 MW, only 8,208 MW could be supplied on August 6.”
Average infirm power of wind energy injected to the grid for the month of August-2015 (up to August 14) is around 21 MU daily and during peak hours, the wind generation is between 300 and 1600 MW.
Remedial measures According to Ravikumar, Karnataka has initiated measures to tackle the situation. PPA has been signed by Bescom with Global Energy for supply of 90-133 MW from July to September and 100-150 MW from October to May through 220 KV Chikkodi-Kolhapur inter-State line at the rate of ₹4.85 per unit.
Tender has been finalised for procurement of 750 MW from September 15 to May 31 on short-term basis at the rate of ₹5.08 per unit (L1 price),” he added. The State has decided to advance the procurement to August 20 from September 15 in view of the current shortage.
The State will procure 450 MW RTC power from Damodar Valley Corporation on long-term basis from January 1, 2016 onwards. Efforts are being made by the State to procure additional 150 to 200 MW to mitigate the shortage faced by the State.
Efforts are also under way to restore UPCL and RTPS generating units, which are under outage, and to add about 200MW of solar power by December this year.
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