A press note from the Power Ministry, Government of Karnataka, presents the sorry state of affairs in the state, that have forced the State government to announce power cuts. Here follows the press note:

Power Position as on 15.08.2015

1. The state is having an installed capacity of 10189 MW from the conventional sources, but the present availability is only 6600 to 7300 MW from all the sources due to break down in State & Central generating units and reduced hydro availability.
2. Poor monsoon has taken a toll on hydro availability. As on 15th August, the total storage in the 3 major hydel reservoirs of Linganamakki, Mani and Supa is around 4020 MUs (46.26%) as against 6,573 MUs (75.65%) in 2014 and 7892 MUs (90.82%) in 2013 on the same day. The State’s hydel storage has decreased by 2,553 MUs compared to 2014 and 3,872 MUs compared to 2013.
3. During August 2015, state has witnessed huge loss of generation to an extent of 3020MW from State and Central Generating Stations due to unforeseen and planned outages in UPCL, RTPS,BTPS. CGS units that has adversely affected the power supply position since 1 week.
4. Currently the UPCL plant with a capacity of 1200 MW is under shutdown due to problem in circulating water system and difficulty encountered in setting right the same due to high turbidity and reduced flow in sea-water intake system. Continuous efforts are being made to restore the generation.
5. Against ESCOMs average requirement of 184 MUs , actual requirement met is 168 MUs.
6. Against the peak demand of 8500 MW, the actual peak demand met is 8208 MW on 06.08.15 and consequent to huge loss of thermal generation from 10^th Aug-15 onwards, state demand met is in the range of 7000 to 7300 MW resulting in 1000 to 1500 MW unscheduled load curtailment.
7. Average infirm power of wind energy injected to the grid for the month of August-2015 (up to 14^th) is around 21.0 MU per day and during peak hours the wind generation is between 300 to 1600 MW.

 Actions initiated by the State to tackle power crisis for the year 2015-16.

• PPA signed by BESCOM with M/s. Global Energy Pvt. Ltd, for supply of 90-133 MW for the period July to Sept-2015 and 100-150 MW for the period Oct to May-2016 through 220 KV Chikkodi-Kolhapur Interstate line at the rate of Rs 4.85 per unit.
• Tender has been finalized for procurement of 750 MW for the period from 15^th September 2015 to 31^st May 2016 on short term basis at the rate of  Rs 5.08 per unit(L1 price). State has taken initiative to pre-pone this procurement from 20^th August 2015 instead of 15^th September 2015 to mitigate the current power crisis.
• State would be procuring 450 MW RTC power from Damodar Valley Corporation, on long term basis from 01st January 2016 onwards.
• Efforts are being made by the State to procure additional 150 to 200 MW to mitigate the shortage faced by the State.
• Continuous efforts are under way to restore UPCL & RTPS generating units which are under outage.
• Efforts are being made  to add about 200MWs of Solar power by December 2015.

Financial implications on ESCOMs due to short term procurement

The deficit in hydel availability is met by short term procurement wherein the per unit cost incurred for procurement is around 5.08 per unit in place of Rs 0.48 to 0.52 average per unit cost incurred for hydel generation. Due to this, ESCOMs will be incurring additional power purchase expenditure of Rs 247 crores per month which works out to 2223 crores up to May 2016. The overall estimated additional cost to be incurred towards short term procurement is 342 crores per month and the estimated expenditure works out to 3078 Crores up to May 2016.

 *cost of short term procurement rate minus average hyro generation cost considered

 The statement Showing the State Requirement, availability and Usage in MU

Hydel Availabiity from major reservoirs

Loss of generation

• The table below shows the details of Loss of Generation due to forced outage of units and planned outage of units in State and Central Sector, resulting in power crisis.