Power crisis: K'taka seeks 1,000 MW more from Centre

The state is already in the grip of a water crisis. The fire at Sharavathi hydro plant has resulted in a shortage of 2,500 MW, officials said.

Karnataka lost about 1,275MW of power, including 1,035MW from Sharavathi HEP and 240 MW from Gerusoppa HEP which is downstream of Sharavthi after the fire. Explaining the cause of the fire, KPC officials said, "A fault in the grounding triggered a short-circuit. The grounding or earthing had been done at the Sharavathi-Talaguppa power line about 10 days ago." In the letter to Goyal, Shivakumar said the demand for power in the state has already touched 10,000MW owing to school and college exams besides the rising temperature. However, only about 7,500 MW is available. To prevent an immediate crisis, he said, the units at Raichur Thermal Power Station (RTPS) have been working without any break for even routine maintenance till Sharavathi plant starts functioning. 'Human error ruled out' The Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) has ruled out human error in the fire at Sharavathi hydroelectric plant (HEP) in Shivamogga. KPCL chief engineer M Shivamallu said, "With the recent installation of the Sharavathi-Talaguppa line, instead of the Sharavathi-Shivamogga line, 10 days ago there was an Earth Fault. It is a common occurrence when earthing is not sufficient. Prima facie, there was no human error and it was a technical snag." Nonetheless, it is said that KPCL has constituted a Fault Analysis Committee with experts from the power sector to analyse the problem that occurred at Sharavathi Power Station. It was carelessness: BSY Former CM B S Yeddyurappa has urged the state government to hold an inquiry to assess the real loss in the fire accident. Speaking at Shivamogga he alleged that it was carelessness on the part of the management to check for the cables. He urged the power minister not to delay the process and take serious note of the disturbance caused in power production.