No load shedding, state prepared to manage the increasing power demand during summer: K J George

The State Energy Department has assured that there will be no load shedding this summer and arrangements have been made to ensure the state has enough power to meet the increasing demand during summer.

In a statement to the media, Energy Minister K J George said that the peak load this year is expected to cross 17,000 Megawatt as against last year’s peak load of 15,300 MW. “The state’s power consumption per day has gone up to 329 Million Units (MU) as against the average consumption of 300 MUs in the last few years,” he said.

The department said that the power consumption in the state had gone up by nearly 45 per cent as compared to last year owing to the poor monsoons. “Power generation has remained the same in the last four years. Along with this, this year's monsoon has been very poor. It has led to increased power consumption across all households and farmers' irrigation pump sets, roughly translating to a 45 per cent increase in consumption. The irrigation pump sets have a lion’s share of increased power consumption,” George explained.

However, he added that the department has chalked out measures to meet the increasing demand. To augment thermal power generation, the government has also decided to import 2.5 lakh tonnes of coal from Indonesia and blend it with locally sourced coal. “This is expected to help existing thermal plants generate 600 to 800 MW of additional energy in addition to their existing capacity of 3,400 MW,” a statement by the energy department said.

Energy augmentation plans

*3,250 MW a day from three State thermal plants 
*1,000 MW a day from the limited Hydro potential that was conserved to meet the high demand period of March and April.
*900 MW a day from the bilateral energy swap agreement with Uttar Pradesh and Punjab 
*500 MW RTC power being obtained from state-embedded private generators by imposing Section 11 
*302 MW of Power from the central grid is availed from the national unallocated share by proper representation of the need and necessity. 
*400 MW the State's share of power in Central Generating Stations (CGS) has been regularly obtained and utilised.
*370 MW combined Cycle Gas Powered Plant in Yelahanka to be commissioned soon