Unscheduled power cuts have been plaguing the state for quite sometime now. Faced with a severe shortage of power, the state government has been forced to approach other states to put an end to the shortfall.
SL Rao, chairman, Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC), who headed the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, feels that the power crisis in Bangalore is a result of various issues that is bogging down the Bangalore Electricity Supply Commission (BESCOM). He spoke to DNA on the topic.
How would you view the power crisis situation in the state?
The crisis has been existing for quite a number of years now but the governments in the state have done nothing so far to resolve the issue. However, the present government should not be only blamed for this, as the earlier state governments did not take any concrete measures to put an end to this menace.
What could be the contribution of a common man in the management of power crisis?
Using electricity more efficiently and judiciously keeping in mind the requirements of the hour would be an ideal way to save energy. Also the ESCOMS had publicised several measures like usage of alternate power resources like solar energy.
Where did the present government go wrong?
The government has declared free power supply to farmers for their agricultural activities. And it is a human tendency to ignore the value of which we get free of cost.
As the farmers are getting free electricity to irrigate their lands, they are likely to waste it. For instance, there are farmers with dry lands experimenting with wet land crop like paddy and grape.
Irrigation of these require huge amount of water to be pumped into the fields. This is neither beneficial for the farmer nor does it contribute to the per capita income of the state. More water means more power. It is sheer waste of these two precious resources. The free power supply to pump ground water for farming purposes is not a wise decision by the state.
What would like to suggest to the government?
Government should come forward to implement the dual pricing policy. The consumption of power is more in the morning than during night. Thus the charges per unit used in the morning must be made more than that of the charges during night. This will add to the per capita income of the state. This method was tried only in Uttar Pradesh temporarily on experimentation basis. We must stop aping Pune’s model of captive power generation. This will become an additional burden on part of the domestic users.
