The failure of the southwest monsoon and a surge in demand across various sectors has resulted in an unprecedented power situation in Karnataka with a mismatch in availability in demand. While the previous year’s power demand in the State on October 9 was 8,818 MW, on the same day this year, the demand is a whopping 15,403 MW, the Energy Department noted on Tuesday.
The State is currently falling short of 40-50 MU of power every day.
This year, while the monsoon was somewhat active in the last two weeks of July in the State, there was a significant deficit in rainfall in the months of August and September, except for a few scattered showers.
Hydel shortage
The water storage in three reservoirs in the State used for electricity generation – Linganamakki, Supa and Varahi — have gone down by almost 50% leading to a generation loss of 2,968 MU as of October 9 this year. The department said that the current availability of energy in the State for this year is short of approximately 3,000 MU due to the low storage in hydro dams.
Further, with no help from rain, the farmers started using IP sets prior to their regular usage period pushing the energy demand upwards. While the consumption in agriculture category was 1,425 MU in July 2022, it rose up to 2,209 MU in July 2023. Against a peak demand of 11,268 MW and energy consumption of 208 MU in August 2022, this year, the State recorded a peak demand of 19,850 MW and energy consumption of 294 MU on August 25.
RE generation down
The power woes are further worsened as the renewable energy (RE) generation has also come down in the month of October, especially with regard to wind and solar energy. While wind generation was 53.63 MU on October 1, it came down to 4.76 MU on October 9.
All this together has increased the State’s dependency on thermal energy. However, with heavy rain near the mines from where the State receives its coal for thermal power plants, the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) is only receiving wet coal, which has resulted in a breakdown of power plants frequently.
Power swapping
The Energy Department said that a slew of measures had been put in place to mitigate the power shortfall including power swapping arrangements with other states. “The State has negotiated for swapping of power from Uttar Pradesh during the pre-solar and post-solar hours to an extent of 300 to 600MW for the period from October 2023 to May 2024. This power is to be returned to Uttar Pradesh from June 2024 to Sept 2024. Similar swapping arrangement has been finalised with Punjab also for a quantum of 500 MW of Round The Clock (RTC) power from November 2023 to May 2024,” officials said.
The State has also obtained permission from Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) to procure power through short term tender to extent of 1250 MW power on RTC basis and 250MW on RTM as and when required (primarily for peak hours), on a cap rate basis.
Gaurav Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary, Energy Department, said that nodal officers in the rank of CEE have been nominated for each district to monitor the power supply in co-ordination with MDs of ESCOMs. The officers will ensure all categories of consumers are provided equitable power supply.
To mitigate the present crisis, all Escoms, Distribution Control Centres (DCC) will work in coordination with SLDC to ensure proper power supply to all essential load consumers. Non-essential loads will be identified and power supply will be given on priority - Pankaj Kumar Pandey, MD, KPTCL.
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy took to X (formerly Twitter) to attack the Energy Department on the power crisis being faced in the State. “Crops are drying up due to lack of electricity in all the districts of the state. There is no water in the canals and no electricity to pump from the borewells. The Congress government is putting more burden on the backs of the farmers who are already in trouble,” he said.
