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Statescan
As the
Karnataka chief minister gropes in the dark to meet the acute power shortage
in the state, India Today's Stephen David looks at the options available
to him.
Karnataka
may be an infotech and biotech superpower, but when it comes to the brass
tacks, one of the biggest challenges for its IT-savvy chief minister S.M.
Krishna is the battle for power. The state, it appears, is groping in
the dark to overcome a shortage of 3,200 MW. The frantic loadshedding,
both scheduled and unscheduled, has been of little avail.
While Andhra Pradesh has agreed to bail out the state by providing 100
MW, state officials have held meetings with Mumbai's Tata Power Company
for supplying 100 MW. Krishna has sent an SOS to the Centre as well to
provide 100 MW from the unallocated share. Karnataka Power Transmission
Corporation Ltd officials express hope that it would be possible to prevent
any additional loadshedding if they were able to get more power from Tatas
and the Centre. The power-strapped state is also working on drawing 100
MW from the Kayamkulam power plant of the National Thermal Power Corporation
in Kerala. For now though, it will have to be content with the 100 MW
of supply from Andhra which would help fetch about 2.5 million units of
energy per day against a shortage of about 10 to 12 MUs a day.
Expectedly, the sorry power situation is beginning to tell on other sectors.
According to a report by McKinsey, the infotech march in Karnataka hinges
on power. McKinsey, engaged by the Karnataka government to look at its
infotech scenario, warns that the power supply gap pushes up the investment
costs and can put a brake in the growth of sofware exports. IT Minister
B.K. Chandrashekhar, however, says that the Government is aware of the
power problem and that most software firms like Infosys, Wipro and others
have their own captive power generation plants.
That is of little comfort though. Power Grid Corporation of India Limited
Chairman and Managing Director R.P. Singh, who air-dashed to Bangalore
last week to review the scenario following the southern power grid collapse
on May 14, has called upon Karnataka to maintain grid discipline while
pointing out that low frequency and low voltages are detrimental to grid
safety. The state Government has agreed to fund the 400 KV AC station
at Kolar till the work on the high power direct current line was done
While the work on 400-kv Thalchery-Kolar line is expected to be completed
by July, power is expected to flow into the state’s grid by next
year. The PGCIL has also taken up preliminary works on the 400-KV Mysore-Nelamangala
line and 400-KV station at Mysore.
Ongoing efforts to meet the power shortage have met with several setbacks.
Projects like Cogentrix have been edged out as a result of which and the
state is facing a slowdown in capacity addition to the power sector. Karnataka
had earlier planned to add 3449 MW through the independent power producer
(IPP) route and only about 600 MW through the public sector route. Another
1300 MW is expected through public sector- private sector joint ventures
by the year 2010. However, so far the state Government has been able to
achieve only 10 per cent of the capacity of the IPPs.
Sources say that this would mean that there would be severe shortfalls
in the estimated demand of 9135 MW made by the Central Electricity Authority's
16th Electric Power Survey. The state Government had then estimated an
availability of 5645 MW on the basis of a 90 per cent plant-load factor.
In reality, the hydel availability is unlikely to be beyond 1300 MW assuming
50 per cent utilisation of installed capacity. In the case of thermal
stations, the average availability is unlikely to be beyond 900 MW assuming
a nominal plant-load factor of 75 per cent.
Officials say if the state Government wants to achieve a growth rate of
6 per cent in the state domestic product, then the power availability
should go up by 9 per cent every year. A low growth rate means low revenue
generation. The private sector complains that the state is unwilling to
provide a bankable financial security package, like assigning revenues
from distribution circles or giving a default escrow account. Financial
security packages would be needed for three projects of 1517 MW at Almatti,
Bidadi and Vijayanagar, promoted by KPTCL.
The state Government had appointed the Deepak Parekh commitee to review
the escrow meeting. It was then recommended that the Government should
not provide any escrow support. With such roadblocks, the chief minister
will have to think of more innovative ways to meet the crisis. Else, the
state, to repeat a cliche, will plunge into darkness.
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