If you are in Bengaluru, you may have been affected by unscheduled power cuts in the last couple of days. The situation, however, is unlikely to get better on Wednesday as the state suffers a shortfall of 1500 megawatt with one dysfunctional unitsat Ballari and Udupi power plant each.
Times of India reported that close to 5,000 complaints were submitted to Bescom between 2 pm Monday and 3 pm Tuesday.
According to its official website, multiple areas of the city suffered power outage of at least an hour by 1pm on Wednesday.
Areas affected
These areas include Koramangala 3rd and 4th blocks, Nisarga Layout, Vijaya Bank colony, Sarjapura, Kaikondrahalli, Yeshwanthapura, and Rajaji Nagar.
Power supply will also be affected in BTM 1st Stage, Maruthi Nagar, Madivala and surrounding areas on Wednesday due to some cable work in a transformer. Power is expected to be restored in these areas by 4pm.
Doddanekkundi, Marathahalli and surrounding areas will also suffer outage and regular power supply will be restored by 2.30pm due to maintenance work in 11 kilovolts feeder line.
Shortage of coal
However, Bescom officials claimed that the situation is in control as the state has bought electricity from the national power exchange at market price and there are no scheduled power cuts in the city for Wednesday.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, Bescom Managing Director P Rajendra Cholan said that the power purchased will take two days’ time to flow into the system. And while the present deficit is 1500 MW, the Karnataka government has so far bought only 500 MW.
Shortage of coal is also touted to be another reason for power cuts these days. DH reported that officials of the state power department held a high-level meeting on Tuesday evening and the issue of shortage of coal also came up.
Energy Minister DK Shivakumar, however, hopes to bridge the power deficit by giving a major push to non-conventional energy. The state government estimates another 2700MW of power can be yielded from the under construction world’s largest solar park— Pavagada solar power plant by the end of 2018.