Participating at the State Energy Ministers’ conference convened by Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde here, Karnataka Energy Minister K S Eshwarappa said that due to uneven monsoon, the gap between demand and supply varied between 15 to 20 per cent, leading to increasing peak hour shortage in the State.
Though the State was getting 1,543 MW daily from central generating stations, it was less, compared to neighbouring states’ share. Eshwarappa also demanded the Centre to restore 50 MW of power of Karnataka’s share from the Central grid which was stopped recently.
The minister also demanded the Centre to allocate coal blocks for the proposed thermal power projects in Karnataka, including NTPC’s mega project at Kudgi in Bijapur district. He requested the Centre to set up a 2,000 MW Greenfield nuclear power project in the State, apart from adding 1,400 MW to Nuclear Power Plant at Kaiga.
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters here, the minister said that the State government is proposing revision of power tariff soon. Due to increase in the cost of production and employees’ wages, the State government was planning to hike tariff marginally, without burdening the consumers.
He said the State government has spend Rs 3,000 crore to buy power this year from private producers.