The installed capacity of power generation in Karnataka will go up from 30,000 MW to 40,000 MW by the end of 2030 as a lot of emphasis has been laid on harnessing renewable energies (RE) and the State is planning for increasing generation through RE sources to about 10,000 MW in the next ten years.
Disclosing this here in Mysuru on Saturday, Minister for Energy and Kannada and Culture V. Sunil Kumar said the Centre has set a target of 500 GW of renewable energy in the next ten years. Karnataka, which is pioneering in harnessing RE sources, has taken the lead and supporting the Centre’s initiatives/plans.
Inaugurating a symposium on “Electric vehicles and charging technologies”, the Minister said Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has announced a hybrid park for generating 500 MW of power tapping solar and wind energies. Unlike the conventional energy sources, renewable energy sources are eco-friendly and therefore steps have been taken for pushing RE generation across the State. In this connection, a policy has been framed for realising the vision in the next five years, Mr. Kumar said.
Referring to the drive that was launched on May 5 for the maintenance of transformers in the State, the Minister said maintenance of 80 per cent of transformers have been done in a span of 24 hours. The staff handled a record number of transformers simultaneously in the State.
Out of 8,700 transformers, nearly 8,000 of them have been replaced with the new ones in five districts coming under Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation Limited (CESC). In the next 15 days, the maintenance, replacement and repair of all transformers will be done and the ESCOMs have been asked to take all necessary precautions so that transformer failures don’t recur, Mr Kumar said.
In CESC limits, the officials had claimed that transformer failures have dropped from 12 per cent to 7 per cent in recent years. Some transformers are 10 years old and some are 15 to 20 years old. Based on the condition of each transformer, the teams constituted for their maintenance would decide on whether they need to be repaired or replaced. Overload on transformers is one of the key reasons for their failure. Lack of maintenance is another cause. All these factors are the reasons for the Energy Department to launch the drive.
