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Electricity - Here we go again

11 February 2009 - 9:36am — Ravi_D

Brace for dark summer - says today's DH.

Remember the recent now-on-and-now-off load shed mela? Fortunately, rains saved the day then. de ja vu again. I don't remember anything in the news recently to counter the situation, knowing fully well summer is heading our way.

Interestingly our energy minister is quoted as saying "The Bellary plant is like a newborn baby, while the Raichur plant is a sick, old man"!

How can a power plant commissioned startng in '85 be a 'sick old man'? If maintained well, and routinely upgraded as needs arise, I fail to understand why the plan cannot work as effectively as any other.

Ravi

Eshwarappa is not tuned to reality

mcadambi - 13 Feb 2009 - 8:46pm
Karnataka's power generation mix is 67% powered by Hydel sources. This tends to fail even during monsoons as we witnessed last year. To compound the crisis, K S Eshwarappa and his babus at the Energy Ministry are out of touch with simple theories of demand and supply.

Electricity prices have not been revised for a long time because of populism. Power theft and transmission losses account for 30% of the power generated. This is abnormally high.

Thankfully, the new CERC (Central Electricity Regulatory Commission) reforms and initiatives such as the India Energy Exchange have made power a tradable commodity. This achieves the objectives of better price discovery and smaller time frames for power purchase agreements. 
trimurthi's picture

Power prices and slabs as regulators

trimurthi - 15 Feb 2009 - 10:26am
I guess mcadambi's revision of fares mean increase the fare, so...

Dear Reader, do you follow diligent power usage? Please start doing a spring cleaning of your power usage habits today!

Short term goal: Power bills should have slabs that enforce reduction in power gobbling. More your consumption more you pay. Of course this needs diesel generator regulation for the rich class thieves.

I don't have the exact stats but the major activity is water heating. If Bangalore practices efficient water heating a lot of the problems can be solved. Also about standby power and power wasted due to neglected running appliances. Also, I have seen countless cases of wasted power from running appliances for ghosts to running AC's carelessly, and the list goes on.

KPC or KPTCL should just consider the cost-to-the-environment and power prices will naturally go up. Public needs to be made aware of pollution, damage to the environment, etc before shouting for new plants. I know everyone can't be follow efficiency strictly but atleast they should believe in it.

Hard way but involves least centralised effort and more of a collective effort.

Here are few links:
Standby power usage: 15 million units believed to be lost per month (10% of used power!!)

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