Early monsoons help state resolve power problem

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posted on 13 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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BANGALORE: With the early arrival of the monsoons this year, electricity consumption has reduced in the state and the power scenar..

BANGALORE: With the early arrival of the monsoons this year, electricity consumption has reduced in the state and the power scenario may improve further by June end, as reservoirs are expected to be full.
Monsoon arrived in the state on June 3. Director Technical of Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd, H N Narayana Prasad, said agriculture sector's requirement for electricity has reduced with advent of monsoon as farmers have stopped using irrigation pump sets.On an average, Karnataka consumed 7,044 MW every day in April. Compared to this, the daily power consumption for this month (June 3 onwards) has reduced by 37 per cent. The drop in power consumption has been significant particularly in districts such as Hubli, Gulbarga and Mangalore, where agriculture is the main profession.

The average daily power consumption of districts under Hubli Electricity Supply Company was 32.6 million units in May. The districts' daily energy requirement has been half in June. In Bangalore, the present consumption is around 70 per cent of what it was earlier.

Karnataka, which faced acute power shortage last year, has spent around `3,937.1 crore to buy 7,815.5 million units from private power companies. The state has been buying 1,000 MW every day. The power purchase agreement was valid till June. However, now the state government is making preparations to buy 500 MW every day, every month from August this year to May 2013. A senior official of Energy Department said the power would be procured from private companies on behalf of all the five ESCOMs.