Karnataka: Unscheduled power cuts irk citizens

BENGALURU: Successful in sourcing power from multiple generators both in Karnataka and other states to meet the unprecedented surge in demand over the past few months, the state government has a new problem to tackle - unscheduled power cuts or outages!
Ranging from a few minutes to prolonged hours, unscheduled power outages and fluctuations in voltage, both in urban and rural areas, have left citizens agitated despite the government's claim of resolving the energy crisis.In some cases, citizens have begun tracking and recording the number of outages in order to challenge the claims of the Escoms (electricity supply companies).
In Bengaluru alone, in addition to the scheduled power shutdown due to maintenance work, citizens are witnessing unscheduled power cuts spanning several minutes in various sub-divisions. Strangely, the number of unscheduled power cuts is only increasing with improvement in the energy scenario at the state level. What used to be just five unscheduled power outages a month initially in 2023 at one of the sub-divisions in Bengaluru has reached 27 in November alone.
Even as citizens are clueless about the reasons behind the unscheduled outages, engineers at Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) point to an increased load factor on the existing infrastructure. "If you look at the power demand, in Bengaluru alone, the consumption has almost doubled. Whereas the power transmission infrastructure, barring a few locations, has by and large remained the same. Due to the increased load, especially during peak hours, the infrastructure fails to withstand the additional load, resulting in tripping or breakdown of lines and causing outage or poor voltage. But all of the engineers and technical staff are quick enough to respond to the situation and restore power supply in less than a few minutes," explained a senior engineer from Bescom.