Report of Indian Institute of Public Administration ... - Ministry of Power

Karnataka
AGRICULTURAL LOAD
Karnataka is basically an agro-based economy, though in the recent years it is known
for the high level of industrialisation achieved through the mushrooming of several
large and medium Information and Telecommunication Technology (ITT) industries,
which are centered in and around its capital city, Bangalore. Naturally, a large share of
the energy distributed by the erstwhile KEB as well as the present-day DISCOMs
constitute supplies to farmers for agricultural purposes. KEB’s records 8 show that
about 44 per cent of its sale was consumed by the agricultural sector. In that year
(1998-99), the energy utilised for irrigation pumpsets came to 7,008 MU as against
9,117 MU in the previous year. As on 31March 1999, some 11,25,933 irrigation
pumps were serviced by the KEB, and an additional 15,891 sets by the Hukkeri Rural
Electric Cooperative Society Ltd. On the other hand, the revenue generation from the
supplies to pumpsets was abysmally low at only 5.4 per cent for the year 1998-99.
The above trend is visible, even in respect of BESCOM and MESCOM for which data
is available as under:
Table: Consumer Category-wise Sale of Power in MU (2004-05)
DISCOM Domestic Coml. Industry
(HT)
Industry
(LT)
3.11
Public
Lighting
BESCOM 2,551 1,331 1816 870 222 651 50
Rs. (Cr) 867 834 872 397 117 266 45
MESCOM 1076 313 941 221 151 444 -
Rs. (Cr) 347 195 399 109 62 160 -
INDEPENDENT GENERATION COMPANY (KPCL)
Water-
Others Agl. Total
works
3926
(34%) 11,417
192
(5.3%)
3589
1558
(33%)
4,705
99
(7.2%) 1,372)
(Source: PFC)
A unique feature of the power sector development in Karnataka was the establishment
of the KPCL in 1971. It must be remembered that almost all other SEBs had
internalised the generation activity, and the practice followed by Karnataka to form a
separate entity for generation was a bold step. KPCL has an installed capacity of
4,640.50 MW with an annual income of Rs 2,483 crore (2004-05). It made a profit
before tax (PBT) of Rs 239 crore in that year and declared a dividend of Rs 20 per
share (on shares of Rs 10 each). The Raichur Thermal Power Station (RTPS) under
the KPCL has an installed capacity of 1,470 MW and had achieved the highest PLF of
8 KEB’s Annual Administrative Report for 1998-99.