Bangalore and its power

Many states in India have been facing acute power shortage. Our neighbouring State of  Tamil Nadu has been undergoing a severe power crunch and the State has imposed load shedding all over.

The sweltering summer coupled with power outages have made people really sweat it out. The demand for power in Tamil Nadu is about 12500 MW and the supply is 8000 MW, leaving a fairly huge shortfall.

The power crisis of Tamil Nadu and the declining storage levels of reservoirs of Karnataka have fuelled similar fears in Bangalore. Residents of the garden city feel that Bangalore too would face power shortage this summer.

Yes, technically Bangalore could face power shortage but it is unlikely to be of the magnitude of Tamil Nadu or any city on that State.

Bangalore does put a huge demand on the power scenario of Karnataka and the City is facing a shortfall of about 100 MW every day but this is unlikely to cause any major problems.

The 100 MW shortage that Bangalore faces is less than five per cent of the total requirements of power for the City.

BESCOM, which manages the power requirement of Bangalore and several other districts, says its total shortage is 600 MW for its entire network which includes the districts of  Tumkur, Chitradurga, Davanagere and Bangalore rural.

BESCOM pouts the every day demand of power by Bangalore at 2300 MW, while the State needs 6000 MW. Thus, we see that Bangalore needs a little more than one third of the power generated by the State every day.    

Since the peak supply, demand and non-peak demand and supply vary, BESCOM does not find it much of a problem to manage the shortage.

If you take the everyday average, Bangalore consumes 42 Million Units (MU) energy per day, as opposed to the entire State’s 140 MU. The transmission of 2300 MW through the day, leads to consumption of 42 MU of energy.

Why is Bangalore unlikely to face power shortage?

The grid that powers the State is the one that supplies power to Bangalore too. The grid includes power pumped from hydel, thermal and non-conventional sources like wind and sun energy. The grid also receives substantial amount of power from Central Generating Stations (CGS) like Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Kaiga Atomic Power Station in coastal Karnataka.

All the power units in Karnataka can put together produce 12,000 MW of power, but the actual generation is about 6000 MW. However, the generation of power from each source varies from one unit to another and from day to day and even during the day.

The major sources of Karnataka’s generating stations are Raichur thermal plant, the Shivanasamudra, Sharavati and Bhadra power stations.

Karnataka has fifteen hydel power stations - Shivanasamudra, Sharavathy and Bhadra-are some of them. The first hydel power station in Asia was commissioned in Shivanasamudra in 1902. Since then, the state has added to the hydel power generation and it today produced more than 3600 MW of hydel power.

Though hydel power is a major part of state's power, BESCOM gets only a small share of it. The major part of the power to BESCOM comes from thermal and non-conventional sources of energy.

BESCOM gets just 12 per cent of State’s hydel power for its entire operating area which also includes Tumkur, Chitradurga, Davanagere regions and not merely Bangalore. Therefore, the dependency on hydel power is much less than other ESCOMS. In a way, poor monsoons or reducing water levels do not really spell trouble to Bangalore.  

The State’s thermal power comes mainly from coal, gas and diesel stations. Raichur and Bellary Thermal Power Stations (RTPS and BTPS), and Yelahanka Diesel Generating Station (YDGS) are the State's major thermal stations. The gas fired station at Bidadi is yet to start regular production.

Unlike hydel power, thermal power is reliable and it is dependent only on coal. Only shortage of coal or diesel affect power supply.

Another plus for Bangalore is that the central thermal and nuclear stations also supply power to the State. The Central Generating Stations (CGS) fix quota of power to each State depending up[on its needs.

Karnataka gets about 1000 MW from CGS on average and they are mainly from Kaiga, Nevyelli and Ramagundam.

Independent Power Producers (IPPs) generate power from wind, sun and biomass.

The Load Despatch Centre of Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (KPTCL) coordinates power supply to Bangalore. BESCOM informs KPTCL about its requirements and the centre looks after the supply.

                        The power stations of Karnataka are as follows:

Power Station	Type	Number of Units	Capacity (MW)	Total
Raichur Thermal Power station	Thermal	7+1	210x7+250x1	1720
Linganamakki Dam	Hydel	2	27.5	55
Sharavathi	Hydel	10	103.5	1035
Gerusoppa	Hydel	4	60	240
MGHE-1	Hydel	4	13.2	52.8
MGHE-2	Hydel	4	21.6	86.4
Bhadra right bank-1	Hydel	1	7.2	7.2
Bhadra right bank-2	Hydel	1	6	6
Bhadra left bank-1	Hydel	2	12	24
Bhadra left bank-2	Hydel	1	2	2
Supa Dam	Hydel	2	50	100
Nagjhari-1	Hydel	2	135	270
Nagjhari-2	Hydel	4	150	600
Kadra Dam	Hydel	3	50	150
Kodasalli Dam	Hydel	3	40	120
Varahi River	Hydel	4	115	460
Mani	Hydel	2	4.5	9
Ghataprabha	Hydel	2	16	32
Almatti-1	Hydel	1	15	15
Almatti-2	Hydel	5	55	275
Shivanasamudra-1	Hydel	4	6	24
Shivanasamudra-2	Hydel	6	3	18
Shimshapura	Hydel	2	8.6	17.2
Munirabad-1	Hydel	2	9	18
Munirabad-2	Hydel	1	10	10
Yelahanka DG Station	Diesel	6	21.32	127.92
Mallapura	Mini	2	4.5	9
Sirwar	Mini	1	1	1
Kalmala	Mini	1	0.4	0.4
Ganekal	Mini	1	0.35	0.35
Kappadagudda-1	Wind	9	0.225	2.025
Kappadagudda-2	Wind	11	0.230	2.53
Bellary Thermal Power station	Thermal	1	500	500
Yalesandra Solar PV Plant, Kolar Dist	Solar Project	1	3	3
Itnal Solar PV Plant, Belgaum Dist	Solar Project	1	3	3
Total	--	--	--	5975.91

Sacrificing power for water

Bangalore has always been a city plagued by water shortage. Though the city generally receives abundant rains and the rainy season is fairly extended, there is practically no scientific large scale retention of water.

Bangalore is also one of the few cities that has two clear cut rainy seasons-the primary of south west monsoon from June to September and the north east or secondary monsoon from November to December. The average rainfall in Bangalore is 859 mm.

Besides, the summers-March-April and May-are generally moderated by fairly frequent thunderstorms and intermittent rains. The heaviest rainfall recorded in a 24-hour period is 179 millimetres (7.0 in) on October, 1997.

Yet, these flattering statistics do not mean much as water supply has always been a problem in and to Bangalore. For decades, Bangalore has not been able to completely meet the water needs of its residents.

However, this year the water crisis is likely to be more pronounced. The Cauvery verdict restricts the amount of water that the State can draw from Cauvery for providing drinking water to Bangalore. Moreover, tanks, lakes and other water bodies have run dry and the water availability in borewells have depleted.

Bangalore today needs  600 cusecs of water per day or the total water supply per day is put at 950 million litres per day. The per capita water supply is 147 litres per day.

Much of Bangalore’s water needs is met from the Cauvery. Earlier, TG Halli added to the water supply but today it adds to the water woes as it is almost dry.  
Supposing that the monsoon sets in on time in June, Bangalore requires till May end 3.6 tmc ft water just to meet its drinking water needs. Now the question is where is Bangalore going to get its water.

Hesarghatta has completely dried, TG hall has stopped pumping and more water cannot be lifted from the Cauvery.  Hence, the State has to supply water to Bangalore from some of the reservoirs such as KRS, Hemavathi, Harangi and Kabini.

The live storage above sill level at KRS is 4.553 tmc ft, at Hemavathi it is 4.289 tmc ft,  Harangi 5.37 tmc and the live storage above sill level at Kabini is zero.
Since this limited the option of the State Government, it did the next best thing. It ordered mini hydel stations to stop generating electricity and ordered that the water held in the power stations could be used for meting Bangalore’s growing thirst for water.
Thus, we had the Minister for Energy and Bangalore Water Supply, S. Suresh Kumar, directing the Energy department and the Cauvery Neeravari Nigam to stop power generation at four mini hydel plants.
Following the directive,  power generation has stopped at Shiva Balancing Reservoir (SBR), which had reached 3.34 feet (minus 40 inches) last week. Since then, Bangalore has been receiving water from the Shiva Balancing Reservoir.
The Shimsha power unit too has gone silent and its waters are being diverted to Bangalore. The two private power generating companies at Madhavamantri and Satyagala barrage too have been asked to stop power supply and instead divert water to Bangalore.
Both Madhavamantri and Satyagala together produced  0.7 MW of power were using water from the upstream of the river course.
Their practice of storing water and using it later had caused imbalance in the flow to Shiva Balance Reservoir (SBR).
Similarly, the Shiva and the Shimsha power plants used water that  would flow down to the river after power generation. These plants generated less than one per cent of the total power generated in State. However, they used nearly 50 cusecs of water which otherwise could be used for drinking water supply.
The Government has set up a vigilance committee comprising the heads of these departments as well as deputy commissioners of Mysore, Mandya and Chamarajanagar to ensure smooth flow of water along the river course and to keep a tab  on unauthorised drawing of water.
The committee has also been told to ensure that water is not used for power generation or irrigation activities for now. Thus, Bangaloreans should thanks the stars for getting exclusive water