BESCOM

Bengaluru is almost entirely dependent on the state of Karnataka for its electricity supply; nothing wrong in with that in appearance. However, inability of the state to respond consistently to the city’s power demands coupled with the failure to diversify its power generation sources impose a large hurdle on the city’s competitiveness and quality of life. BESCOM, the institution responsible for power distribution in eight districts of Karnataka including Bengaluru Urban and Rural, accounts for almost half of the state’s total demand out of which 2,400 MW are reserved for Bengaluru. With a total electricity demand of about 7,000 MW…

I am told that I can pay my BESCOM bill online, if I know my Customer ID or the Account ID, which, according to BESCOM, is printed on my bill.   <a href="http://bescom.org/en/know-your-customer-id-or-account-id/"> here </a>   is their snapshot of a sample bill, from which one can get the Account or Customer ID.   Alas...that sample is not close to reality.   Month after month, I get a bill where the figures are nowhere in alignment with the lines describing the various details. In fact, for the month of October, I have this bill which is actually half of two bills,…

Pic courtesy: Janaagraha Smt G Padmavathi, Mayor, BBMP and Mr N Manjunath Prasad, IAS, Commissioner, BBMP launched the MyCityMyBudget (MCMB) programme of Janaagraha, to gather budget requests from citizens for the City Budget 2017-18. MCMB will gather budget requests from citizens’ on three tracks; 1) through workshops facilitated by the MCMB team at Resident Welfare Associations, schools, colleges, urban poor communities, workers groups and corporates, 2) online at www.ichangemycity.com, and 3) through the Budget bus that will collect inputs from citizens on the streets. Citizens can provide budget requests across any civic issue through a simple form at the workshops…

B.PAC submitted its strong objections to BESCOM’s proposal for increase of electricity tariff for FY-17. TV Mohandas Pai, Vice President and Revathy Ashok, CEO and Managing Trustee, B.PAC made the submissions to the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) during the public hearing conducted by KERC on Friday February 26th 2016. Following are the highlights of B.PAC’s submissions.  Capital Expenditure CAPEX for FY15 has nearly doubled – The sanctioned budget was Rs 763 crore, whereas actual CAPEX has increased to Rs 1474 crore in 2014-15. This amounts to an increase of Rs 711 crore. Such a significant increase in unplanned CAPEX…

All of us bemoan the fact that so many PET bottles get used and thrown into the landscape, where they will not bio-degrade. Well, I've been noticing that the Government (or, rather, the power companies) have come up with a great "jugaad" (creative solution) that uses these bottles. The ends of the transmission wires are fed into the bottle and sealed, thus ensuring that short circuits do not happen, the ends are protected from the elements, easily visible, and in a lightweight container. Congratulations to the very creative person who thought "out of the box" and "in the bottle" on…

Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC) on behalf of the citizens of Bengaluru city had submitted a petition to the Karnatala Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) on November 9th 2015 against BESCOM’s unsafe electrical installations across the city. Prior to this, B.PAC conducted an on-field survey covering 21 locations, identifying more than 200 dangerous electrical installations, awaiting major tragedies to happen. The pictures submitted were self-explanatory that none of these installations fulfilled the safety norms recommended by the Central Electricity Authority. Pics: B.PAC B.PAC requested the commission to direct BESCOM to replace all dangerous installations in public access areas on priority. The…

Yelahanka United Environment Association (YUVA), along with BESCOM, is organising LED bulbs distribution at highly concessional rates at Allalasandra Lake in Yelahanka New Town, on Saturday 23rd Jan and Sunday 24th Jan 2016 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. LED bulbs of 9 watts will be sold at Rs 100 per bulb. The number of bulbs per person will be restricted. Please carry address proof/ ID proof to avail the offer. Carry bags will not be given, so please cary your own. Free replacement warranty for 3 years on every bulb.  

BESCOM has published the schedule of load shedding. This is available on www.bescom.org for the convenience of consumers. The schedule has been given sub-division wise. According to the schedule, some areas could see power cuts of four hours even. However, comments on social media point out that some areas withness some unscheduled power cuts as well. Also read: Why is Bengaluru facing power cuts? To know when there will be a power cut in your area, look for the sub-division number on your electricity bill, and follow the link for the same. The areas which are fed by BESCOM feeder…

Citizen Matters previously brought to you a series of articles on Rainwater harvesting that included information on how best to go about incorporating best management practices of tapping the resource of rainwater within your own community. An earlier piece answered some basic questions about Solar Power in India. In a continuation of that series, this piece explains in simple terms how people can introduce solar power as an additional or alternate source of energy in their homes. Bangalore's daily power demand is about 2300 Mega Watts (MW), about one-third of the state's total power consumption. The average 2/3 bedroom home…

For Bengalureans, who were getting soaked in frequent evening showers during last fortnight, unbridled load shedding came as a shocker. Load shedding that began with two hours of power cut everyday, was revised to four hours. Load shedding has been withdrawn as of now and people are yet again enjoying non-stop power supply, but the apprehension continues to loom large. Long time residents of Bengaluru felt that it was almost after a 5-6 years they were facing such an inordinate power cut in the city. Normally, monsoon season, that is, June to September, is considered as pressure-free period due to…