Tech city Bengaluru, faced with frequent power outages, may well be a ‘minimum city with
minimum power’. Every downpour sees the city plunging into darkness and the reason trotted out is routine maintenance — a ploy to cover up the shortcomings at generating stations like RTPS and UPCL. Successive power ministers have been quick to blame the Centre, but little is done to improve the power infrastructure, while the cost of power has been steadily escalating. Johnlee Abraham takes a look at what ails our power sector

It’s almost expected. Every time heay rain batters the streets outside, people in homes brace themselves for the inevitable — being plunged into darkness as power transmission lines snap, transformers burst and power stations shut down for fear of overloading.

May has had its share of power problems as a result of the intermittent downpours the city has received with homes even the more upmarket areas of Indiranagar and Jayanagar having to live without power for hours while the civic agencies try to undo the damage done to the lines by the rain.

Ask experts and they tell you the power outages in the rain are a result of the ceramic insulators for the lines which develop cracks under the hot sun and let water seep in during a heavy spell of rain, tripping the network.

A simple solution would be shifting to polymer insulators, but it doesnt seem to have occurred to Bescom, which has not bothered to make the change to the sturdier material for its lines.

Old power stations which can no longer withstand the fury of nature are not getting a facelift either.

Take the Somanahalli 220 KV station that is over 35 years old and tripped several times last month, affecting areas like Hosur, Bommanahalli, Electronic City, parts of HSR Layout and all blocks of Kormanagala, MG Road, Domlur, Adugodi, Bannerghatta Road, NGV, Jayanagar 1 to 4 blocks and Lalbagh.

The apathy is more upsetting as energy rates are upped regularly, forcing tconsumers to dig deeper into their pockets for lighting their homes and workplaces.

Travel outside the city to the Raichur Thermal Power Plant and you see 25 year old machines that are badly in need of upgradation as the plant tripped over 60 times and its machines shut down for 35 days last year.

Even if one or two units of the plant are upgraded, it will help save the department crores in adhoc repairs, say energy experts, underlining that the solution to Bengaluru’s power troubles too is not buying expensive power, but improving its infrastructure for power generation and distribution.

So many authorities, no one in charge

In the process of trying to decentralise power distribution, the authorities have only ended up complicating matters.

The many agencies involved are now able to play a game of passing the buck in a crisis, leaving the consumers confused about who to blame.

Till 2002-03, the only organisations around were the Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd. (KPCL) and the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd.

(formerly Karnataka Electricity Board). But now there are the five ESCOMS too, which are huge organisations in themselves.

“A lack of coordination is clearly evident among these organisations,” says Mr B.G. Rudrappa, former director of the Karnataka Electricity Board.

“One would think that with so many agencies, things would be more streamlined but in reality there is a lack of accountability today,” he regrets.

For instance, the KPTCL, which is responsible for maintaining transformers and transmission lines, shares the job with the ESCOMs.

So whenever a problem arises the agencies find it easy to blame each other. Also, at times the KPTCL sets out to do maintenance work without informing the ESCOMS and vice-versa.

On occasions when KPCL shuts down it plants, the ESCOMs are not informed in advance as they should be, making life harder for consumers.

“The state needs more power units of 3000 to 4000 MW capacity to improve its generation and meet the demand, but they are not being set up either,” observes an officer of the energy department.