~:wersitu~ii~~~oworsenHubballi: The power situation in Kamataka

, is setto worsen as reservoirs inthe state have .:ronly 33-35%water, which can help p~o.vide ~electricity only for a month, energy mmlst~r - ~DKShivakumarsaid here onSaturday. Hesaid .,.the government has urged the Centre to pro- ....vide 1,000MWfrom its unallocated storage. 1,:)")'"However,we have not received any respon~e ,from the Centre ... There's 33-35%water In '"reservoirs ofthe state andwe can supply pow- !e~for a month. After that the situation will~e 1worsen," he said expressi nghope that the sit- ...uationwill improve byDecember. t-

He further said, "To ensure quality andcontinuous supply in rural areas, we have de- \.0,"\:cided to provide 3-phase power on alternative _ I

days. In urban areas, ~e are tryi.ngt? avoid \power cuts in the evenings. The situation has ....worsened because we could not get 1,000MW •from UPCLdue to technical hurdles. Besides, -itwecouidnotget500MWfromBTPSasoneofits -units is shut. Wind mills are producing lesspower.Totackle the crisis, we are purch~S!ngpowerfromprivate players at Rs5.08a~

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Do not blamethe eM as heextended fullsupport for

procurement'of power from

any part ofthe country- O.K. Shlvakumar

Energy Minister

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"~Ht\n!u ~~=';" " "'li:D~:t~ind turbine project proposal

in elephant habitat rejected'

The site of the proposed project is located between BRT Tiger Reserve andM.M. Hills Wildlife Sanctuary, both of which are habitats of the Asiaticelephants and other wild animals. - PHOTO:M.A. SRIRAM

R. Krishna Kumar

MYSURU: In a major boost toconservation, KarnatakaState Wildlife Board has re­jected a proposal to establisha wind power generation sta­tion at Bellathur Gudda andsurrounding villages in Kolle­gal which is an elephant homerange.

The decision to reject theproject, mooted by a privateplayer, was taken at theboard's meeting in Bengaluruon Friday where the mem­bers opposed the power sta­tion on the grounds that thesite was located between twoimportant protected areasbesides being an importantcorridor.

The attention of the mem­bers was drawn to a reportsubmitted by the AdditionalPrincipal Chief Conservatorof Forests (APCCF), Mysuru,pointing out that the site ofthe proposed project was lo­cated between BRT Tiger Re­serve and M.M. Hills WildlifeSanctuary, both of which arehabitats of the Asiatic ele­phants and other wild ani­mals.

Elephant herds were alsoknown to frequently move

REDSIGNAL .o The project was mootedby a private player

o Karnataka State WildlifeB.oard rejects the proposal

o Additional PrincipalChief Conservator ofForests submits report onthe proposed site

o Conservator of Forests,BRT Tiger Reserve, submitstechnical report on thenegative impact of thE!proposed project

between the two forests ;s al­so to the nearby CauveryWildlife Sanctuary. Besides,studies had indicated thatelephants use the non-forestland of Bellathur Gudda -which was the proposed sitefor erection of the wind pow­er generating station - as atransit point while movingbetween the two protectedareas.

Consequent to the APCCFreport, the Conservator ofForests, BRT Tiger Reserve,submitted a technical reporton the negative impact of the

proposed wind turbine pro­ject on the elephant habitatand migration pattern of theanimals, and concluded thatit would be harmful for ele­phants.. The proposed site is closeto Edayarahalli (M.M. Hills),and Doddasampige (BRT Ti­ger Reserve) corridor andBeallathur Gudda providedfor free movement of ele­phant herds.

Fears of fragmentationThere were fears that the

project, if approved, wouldresult in fragmentation of theelephant habitat with a nega­tive impact on the long-termconservation efforts. Besideserecting the turbines, theconstruction process entailedclearing vegetation, creatingaccess roads, installing tur­bines and connecting them tothe power lines, all of whichwould add to habitat degrada­tion, and hence the projectwas rejected.

@BloreConnect p[I,or Facebookaccount f/

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,\Anatomy of a power crisisiI Not since 2003 has Bengaluru witnessed a load-shedding scenario of this scale. Here's alook

at what actually went wrong this time andwhy a lasting solution may not emerge in a hurry.• ._. . _.c··{ .. _:"'_ .:.,_..:',:; ,:..<..': "', ,','.,.

U nprecedented inscale, unaccept­ably long. the load­shedding acrossthe City have had

Bengalureans in a tizzy. Ifthreeto four hour powercuts had theofficial stamp, the unscheduledmaintenance shutdowns ex­tending the darkness to eighthours or more have played hav­oc with people'S'daily plans.Frantic in their search for so­lutions, consumers have optedfor costly but unsustainable al­ternatives. Is there an end insight?, Dark, desolate and danger­ous, the deliberately unlitstreets paint' a picture of ex­treme desperation to save pow­er somehow, somewhere. Willpower so preserved from thoseunlit streedights resolve the cri­sis? Does the load-sheddinghave an expiry date? Does theCity have a Plan-B? But moreimportantly, why did the gov­ernment let the scene get soacutely precarioUS?

As consumers opt in drovesfor expensive UPS systems andpolluting diesel generators, theBangalore Electricity SupplyCompany (Beseem) has a bigreason tojustify the load-shed­ding: An acute shorta~ of in­flow into the State's hydelreservoirs. a dire-straits sce­nario triggered by poor rainsin the catchment areas,

For Bescom Managing Di­rector Pankaj Kumar Pandey,the current crisis is a tempo­rary 0lle that could fizzle outin a week or ten days. But hetoo admits that the last timeBengaluru wimessed a short­age crisis of this scale was in2003!

Genesisof crisisSo, what sparked the problem?To answer that, Pandey drawsattention to the thermal powerplants that goes for mainte­nance shutdown between July

galuru city's total daily require­ment of 2,200MW.

EHTconsumersIfthe 30 per cent deficit in thecity's power demand is distrib­uted equally among all con­sumers, the load-sheddingcould be less taXing. But that isnot an option before Bescom.There are 62 Extra High Ten­sion (EH1) consumers in Ben­galuru that demand uninter­rupted 24/7 power supply.

One glance at this EHT con­sumer list and you know theycannot afford a load-sheddingat any cost. The list includesBWSSB, Railways, Bangalore

Metro Rail Corporation Limit­ed (BNlRCL),Kempegowtla In­ternational Airport (KIA), De­fence Research andDevelopment Organisation(DRDO) and a host of IT com­panies from ITPL Whitefieldand Electronics City,

So, the next best option is forthem to use power backupavailable during the morningand evening peak hours. It hasbeen estimated that if the EHTconsumers opt for power back­up for two to four hours,Bescom could get a reliefoflOOMW during peak hours,

Rasheed Kappan

.""and October, a period that co­incides with the monsoon.Everyyear, the expected highersupply from hydel plants wouldcompensate for the shortfalldue to the shutdown. But thisseason, the deficit monsoonwas not anticipated-

Complicating matters, thetwo units of the l,200MWUdupi Power Corporation Lim­ited (UPCL) developed techni­cal problems in the secondweek of August and had to beshut down, "Maintenance ofthe thermal power plants couldnot be delayed, and the reser­voir levels were only 50 percent of last year's levels," ex­plains Pandey. Sensing furthertrouble, the available hydelpower is now being preservedfor the distress months fromJanuary to April.

An extensive. live monitor­ing system at the Bescom head­quarters tracks the scheduledload-shedding across a maze ofsub-stations and feeders. Con­sumers are fed advance infor­mation on the schedule on theBescom websites. Yet, hun-dreds complain of extendedshutdowns that stretch to al­most eight hours in some ar­eas. Does Beseem have an an­swer to this oft-repeatedproblem?TransformermaintenanceMaintenance work at the

transformer level appears tobethe culprit. This work, which isoften taken in their stride byconsumers, amplifies to mon­strous proportions when com­bined with a scheduled load­shedding. During this process,known technically as GroupOperation System (GaS), thetransformers are isolated fromthe main feeder line, haltingpower supply for four to sixhours.

But why can't Bescom sched­ule this GaS work too so thatconsumers could plan better?It is a tricky one as GaS has

If the 30%deficit in the city's power demandis distributed equally among all consumers,the load-shedding could be less taxing. Butthat is not an option before Beseom,---------_ .._-----multiple staff working on dif­ferent transformers simultane­ously, reasons Pandey, For theconsumers though, this is notconvincing enough as they des­perately seek a way out of dayswasted without any access toelectricity.

Solar power wasonce toutedas a viable answer to some of

Bengaluru's power woes. Butnot many residential con­sumers have expoused the so­lar cause in a big way. For allthe hype. the total power gen­erated from solar power plantsinstalled in homes underBescornlimits and fed into thegrid is a hyper-low 2MW. Thisis not even a fraction of Ben-

HYDELPOWERHydel power accounts for only12% of supply to IIeSCOmareas. Tapping

power forBescom

WIND POWEROf the Hon Conventional Energy Proj­ects (HCEP), wind power contributesthe maximum to Bescom. Latest fig-

ures: 176MW

Currently only 2 MW of solarpower Is generated from home­based plants In Bengaluru City

for the grid.

/

NKAsBengahneans reel .,under an unprecedentedpower crisis, citizens seeklong-term solutions to. .

prevent a repeat

E·:vt: ,....nTSO~AK. ,fi..,'r..t:n. .. Jk«. ,

Where isthecontingency plan?WhatsApp forwards, memes, Facebook posts and wittyone-liners aside, the power crisis in the state has irkedeveryone; industries and domestic consumers alike.While the angry public awaits the government's inter­vention, the situation is likely to be grim for some moretime. Having mismanaged the crisis, the state govern­ment, meanwhile, is facing scathing criticism from allquarters.What is the best way to handle the present crisis?

What are the measures to be taken by the governmenttq,~nsure that such a situation does not repeat in the fu­ture? One way to manage the present situation is to savebulk power by adopting rotational holiday for indus­tries. This can be done depending on how much load thegovernment wants to save. "Most industries have sevendays power. Ifthere is a rotational holiday, industrieswould have advance notice to plan better and minimiselosses," said MR Sreenivasa Murthy, former chairman,Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC).

Farmers and industries together account for morethan 50 percent of the power consumption in the State.In the future, the government can also look at introduc­ing a similar holiday for farmers. "Pumpsets have differ-

ent feeders. Depending onthe geographical locationand the crop needs, powersupply can be managed.Most crops can do withoutdaily irrigation. However,this should strictly be doneonly after ascertaining thecrop situation and withconsultation of the peopleconcerned," he empha­sised. Minimising the in­convenience to maximum

E'1lI consumers should be themotto with which the gov-

MRSreenivasa Murthy ernment should operate,he added.

motto with which the gov­ernment should operate,he added.'While these were short

term measures,in thelong run the governmenthad to think of improvingthe operation of the ther­mal and hydel plants.Since 2010,plants havebeen facing repeatedproblems. While thermalplants earlier faced prob­lem with coal availability,the situation has eased outnow. "Operation problemscannot be allowed to hold

..the State to ransom. Weneed experts at the helm of

affairs for these plants," Murthy opined.Undoubtedly, industries have been the worse hit in

this crisis. The Federation ofKarnataka Chambers ofCommerce and Industries (FKCCn presented a memo­randum recently urging the government to straightenthe situation at the earliest.

FKCCI's Energy Committee Chairman M G Prab­hakar questioned why the government did not have acontingency plan. "There are no miracles. A contin­gency plan has to be ready. They cannot start diggingthe well when the house is on fire and take the con­sumer by surprise;' Chairman of Energy Committee,FKCCI, M G Prabhakar said.

While even the common public have to bear thebrunt, the industries have more to lose in such a crisis."Owing to frequent power cuts, economic activity willstart moving at a smuts pace. What do we do with em­ployees inthe industry? What do we do with buyers?Take the instance of an industry such as Plastics whichinvolves casting and melting. If the power goes off in be­tween, the process gets stuck. Who will compensate forthese losses?" wondered Prabhakar, representing theconcerns of industries.The electricity regulatory commission, KERC too had

a role to play in ensuring that the government gave ad­vance notice in case of load-shedding, he pointed out.

M (jPrabhakar

ShruthiHM

E rratic power cutsthrough the day havestaggered City's house­

holds,Everything isnow sched­uled around the outages andyet people are surprised as thelights go out when they least.expect it. With a collectivegroan,Bengalureans &iveup.

"They have machines foreverything from punching ahole in the wall to fitting ascrew. Work thatwould havetaken a few hours now takes upthe whole day. Every time thepower goes, the labourers putdown their tools andsit arounddoing nothing," lamented Vi­jayalakshmi, a resident ofHSRLayout.

Her family isgetting carpen-

try work done at their house.Her son RBharath mirroredher frustration and said,"When labourers sit empty, itmeans that we are not gettingreturns for the money spent."Though labourers are hiredand paid for awhole .day, thework accomplished in betweenpower outages is far less.

Most households get workdone when there ispower. MI)­tors are switched on pre-emp­tively; anything that needs theblender is finished with first inkitchens. But this isnot the case longer than an hour. "I am afor those working from home. content editor and I am con-

Though all necessary de- tinuously browsing to cross­vices such as laptops and check. Without power, there isphones are charged, work no internet. I use my phonestops when the shutdown lasts .data sometimes but for that

•

VlC~. £IUfW •• •

Lights out: Cityhouseholds·hitpause button

too, Ihave to keep it charged.It is especially troublesomewhen Ihave a little extra work,"said Ranjith R Jacob, senior ed­itor at PaperTrue, who worksfrom home in Koramangala.

Unlike homes, small com­mercial establishments cannotwork around power cuts. SriVignesh works at a medicalstore attached to a house in aresidential area. He saidthough there is a UPS in theshop, it only powers one lightand the billing computer. It be­comes difficult for them tosearch for medicines at theback of the shop in theevenings. "Customers will not

wait till the lights come back.Looking with the phone torchtakes a while too. We looseabout Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000business every evening," hecomplained.

These evening power cuts af­fect schoolchildren and collegestudents too.While some try tostudy with an emergency lightor candles, when homeworkneeds internet they are stuck."I work at other houses throughthe day and my children are atschool. In the evenings whenthey have to do homework andstudy, there is no power," ruedSudha, a housemaid.

Power cuts at night are a

scary scenario for the elderlyliving alone in the City. It caneven be life-threatening to •make way through the houseor to the bathroom in the dark,said Nirrnala Raje Kshatriy, anelderly citizen, who lives alone."Bengaluru is a city that has abig population of elderly people 'living alone. It is nota questionof health but of safety:Theireyes are already weak and todeal with power cuts in the I

night is difficult for them. Theauthorities should keep this inmind when they schedule theoutages," she added.

...... _m~For those workingfrom home, the load­shedding hasbecome aninsurmountableproblem,Alternatives arenowhere in sight Nlkltha (jowrl

\

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flED 6Uf6s jto~Save Hple?~ 40,OOOcr, says GoyalTIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Making a power­ful pitch for energy conser­vation, Union minister forpower, coal and new and re­newable energy Piyush Goyal.said the government's ambi­'tioiis programme to replaceall electric bulbs in Indianhouseholds with energy-sav­ing LED bulbs over the nextthree years is attracting re­puted companies from India

tonnes every year.Speaking at the TO!Earth

Care Awards ceremony, theminister said energy conserva­tion was a prime focus of thegovernment. "When I becamea minister, I realized that theBureau of Energy and Effi­ciency was languishing. Youcan judge its status from thefact that last year they pro­cured only about 3 lakh LEDbulbs for distribution, whilethere is a demand for 77crore

RA Mashelkar, head of jury,presents a TOI coffee-table bookto Unionminister PiyushGoyaland abroad as transparentcontracts and prompt pay­ments to suppliers has madethe initiative more than just apipe dream.

Goyal said replacing bulbswould lead to savings of uptoRs40,000crore whichwouldbemoney in the hands of con­sumers. For environmentalbenefits, this would lead to areduction in carbon dioxideemissions of about 60million

LEDbulbs. The price for eachLEDwas Rs310and I realizedit wouldnever make economi­cal sense."

He said the ministrychanged the rules of the gameand pledged to replace everybulb in the country with LEDsin three years. This broughtdown the cost per bulb toRs74in just one year. "The savingwill be 22,000MW in eveningpeak hours between 6-lOpm.

Even at a base cost of Rs4,weare looking at massive savingswhich allgo to the consumer,"he said,

Solar generation was an­other priority area for thegovernment for which manystates have reacted with en­thusiasm, Goyal said. "Weare bidding out nearly 15000MW of solar power. We willsoon come out with a policyto encourage industries andcommercial establishmentsfor rooftop solar generation.We're also looking at expand­ing wind-generating capaci­ty: Our current renewableenergy capacity is 34,000MWand we plan to increase thetarget to 1,75,000MWby 2022.Fortunately, we are doingvery well on this and my owninternal target is to achievethis by 2020,"he told the au­dience.

Outlining several otherplans for environmental pro­tection, the minister said:"Where coal mining is con­cerned, the investment thatshould have gone into envi­ronment protection was leftout so far. According to ourtarget every kilo of coal thatcomes out of mines and trav­els a distance has to bewashed. My plan is to set upcoal washeries for 500milliontones of coal every year fornext five years. It requiresmassive investment and prob­ably increases cost of coal,but this is great for envir~ment protection." ~

)/ IP<:-L ~ .We A'~ f· \ ':,~ ,3/' /1'5""I Tenders floated toI purchase 900 MW powerI HUBBALLI:The State govern- thermalplantsatYarmarasand! ment has floated tenders for BalIariwere expected to gener­i purchasing 900 MW of power, ate powe~by the end of 2015.

I Energy Minister D K Shivaku- Refem.ng to the charges bymar has said. BJP holding State government

On Saturday, the minister responsible for the power crisis,said that though attempts were Shivakumar said that the BJP,being made to reduce load- instead,shouidheipKarnatakashedding hours in urban.areas, get 1,500 MW of power frompower cut for at least an hour the Central grid. He said thathad become inevitableowingto the State was ready to pay up tothe crisis in the State. He said Rs4.5per unit of such power.

//tEt THERE BE liGHT, 'PRIVATISEB£SCOM,MURALlDHAR RAO

•

Bescom, much like the other:- Escoms, has been talking about

improved performance over thelast few years. This might betrue, butBengaluru, as well asother cities in Karnataka, whichare growing exponentially, havea similar demand. Bescom's per­formance has a long way to go ifit hopes to keep pace.Currently, whether or not they

can measure up to the task iscaste in doubt as they operateunder a large number of con­straints. The chief among thesebeing government ownership.Predictably, the biggest prob­

lem they face is shortage offunds - the government owesthem close to Rs 6,200 crore infarmer subsidies.A host of other government

departments too use their serv­ices and pay when they can, ifthey pay at all. Bescom has,therefore, been reduced to apoint where they are unable tocarry out their day-to-day main­tenance work, let alone expand.Upgrading technology is a cru­cial need, but one they areunable to meet. The cracks havebeen showing for a while. Lackof proper maintenance work, forinstance, has resulted in a num­ber of accidents, many of themfatal. The courts have demandedhuge compensations because ofthis, which, along with ideaslike removing transfers, hascompounded the burden onEscoms.Delayed payments by con­

sumers have led to Escomsdelaying paying compensationto KPCL; which is the state'smainstay as far as generation isconcerned. This sum amountsto a whopping Rs 12,000crore,for an annual turnover of Rs6,500crore. Even survival, there­fore, is a miracle.Privatised Escoms in Delhi

approached their High Court toprevent the NTPC from cuttingoff supplies to them for non-pay­ment of bills. The court, howev­er, refused to intervene. The dan­ger of growing public anger wasvery real, so the Delhi govern­ment stepped in and made

l_/\ .\

arrangements to release thedues, thereby saving its ownskin. The Delhi government hasa 49%.stake in the Escoms, Inthe process, lessons were learntby all the stakeholders.Those who preceded Chief

Minister Siddaram,aiah hadcommitted to privatisation ofpower distribution as early as in1997.The emphasis on-distribu­tion was attributed to the gov­ernment's perception that it wasnot in any position to carry outrevenue collection, a key func­tion, largely because of politicalinterference. Various govern­ments voiced their solidaritywith this idea, but nothing real­ly happened on ground.The issue with privatisation

seems to be lack of accountabili­ty as well as higher charges.This doesn't necessarily holdtrue" however. A comparison oftariffs in Delhi and Bengaluru(in relation to reliability) provedthat this is the case. Claims ofmismanagement in DelhiEscoms also proved groundless.,The Delhi model has been triedand tested and known to work. Itcan easily be replicated hereinBengaluru, after some minortweaks, of course. Like Delhi,city utilities must cater to cityneeds and not to rural demand,which needs to be tackled differ­ently. Our own Hukkeri Co-opmodel is a good one to scale, andsubsldiescan be credited tobailkaccounts of eligible benefi­.ciaries, ,instead of' Escoms sup­plying powerat a cheaper rate.This way, bills will be paid up.font and services will continueunhmdered.For any of this to work, the

government needs to strengthen.its own regulatory mechanism.Even the most proactive officerswill not be able to rise to thischallenge. ,It's best, then, thatthese services are handed overto professionals, so that'Bengaluru, the city of technolo-gy,doesn't have to blunder alongin darkness.

(The writer ispresident, PraiaRaag and has campaigned

extensively jar prioatisation ojEscoms inKarnataka)

/1

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