Energy Minister K.J. George on Thursday said that the Central government has agreed to provide an additional 20 lakh tonnes of coal per month to Karnataka amidst the ongoing power crisis in the State.
In the backdrop of the power shortfall in Karnataka, Mr. George and other senior officials from the Energy Department held several meetings with the Ministry of Power and other Central energy organisations.
In a press conference held in Delhi on Thursday, Mr. George said: “The Additional Chief Secretary had written to the Central government about the allocation of additional coal to the State to avoid power shortage in the future. They have agreed to it. We have also called new tenders for logistics to ensure continuous coal supply.”
He also said that the Energy Department was planning to wash coal before transportation as unwashed coal results in more ash, which in turn are affecting boilers in thermal power plants. The Minister also stated that the Ministry of Power had given a positive response regarding the allocation of more power from the Central Grid to the State and increasing the allocation towards components B and C of the PM Kusum Yojana.
Mr. George also said that the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) had agreed to empanel vendors from Karnataka too under the PM Kusum scheme so that the farmers from the State can choose the vendors accordingly. He added that an app will soon be developed to help farmers with the process.
“All these measures will help battle such situations (of power shortfall) in the future. There was no addition of installed capacity to Escoms after 2018. This is the root cause of the problem in meeting the current excess power demand,” Mr. George said.
The Energy Minister also denied several allegations made by former Chief Minister and senior JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy including that of creation of artificial scarcity of power availability. Responding to the allegation that electricity was being purchased for kickbacks, he said that power purchase on behalf of all Escoms was done by Power Company of Karnataka Limited with transparent methods and no human interventions through national level power exchanges as per Central norms.
“If he (Mr. Kumaraswamy) is interested, along with my officers, I will take him to one of the power biddings and show him how it works,” Mr. George said.
