8 villages tap solar power, help Bescom meet summer surge
2
Bengaluru: Halkurike, a little-known hamlet in Tiptur taluk of Tumakuru district, helps Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) manage peak demand every day. It is among nine villages in districts around Bengaluru which have not only reduced the burden on
Bescom
's grid by running IP sets on
solar power
but also feed about 68Mw to the grid daily from their own plants commissioned under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (PM Kusum-C) project.
Surrounded by paddy fields, arecanut and coconut plantations, these villages in Chikkaballapur, Chitradurga, Tumakuru and Davanagere districts used to consume a lot of power to operate IP sets. Now, these IP sets run on solar power generated locally.
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Bescom provides four hours of three-phase power during the day and three hours at night in a phased manner to help farmers irrigate their fields. "But the demand from residential and commercial consumers in and around Bengaluru shoots up during summer making it a challenge to manage both demands and ensure no blackout on either side," said an engineer from Bescom.
N Shivashankara, managing director, Bescom, said: "Now, power from these plants is fed to nearby substations, ensuring quality power to farmers during the day. This reduces the burden on the grid as the demand is met locally."
The state govt has chosen multiple agencies to execute the project across Karnataka. "They set up and operate solar plants for a 25-year duration. The govt only identifies land. The agencies take this land on lease for a minimum of Rs 25,000 per acre per year. "While it costs Rs 3.5 crore to Rs 4 crore to generate one megawatt of power, the agencies get a subsidy of slightly over Rs 1 crore from the central govt. We buy power from them at Rs 2.9 to Rs 3.1 per unit," an engineer said.
Gaurav Gupta, additional chief secretary (energy), said 150-plus locations have been chosen for the Kusum-C project in Bescom limits alone. "In the first phase, 96 locations have been indentified, and the remaining 54 will be executed during the second phase. Work began on 50-60 stations and eight of them are already operational."
Mission to save 2,400Mw daily
Spread over 20 acres, the Rs 4 crore solar plant at Halkurike Revana Siddeshwara Betta has 8,020 solar panels each of 550w. Together they generate about 4Mw of energy daily. "The plants get sunlight for about eight hours a day, generating 8,000 units (9.6 lakh units a month)," said Manohar TL, assistant executive engineer, Bescom at Tiptur.
As many as 2,531 IP sets of different power capacities within a radius of 8-10km are linked to Halkurike feeder, which collectively consume about 30 lakh units per month. "Of these 30 lakh units, 10 lakh units are drawn directly from the local solar plant. This is a major relief as it takes off nearly half the load on the grid. Saved power can be supplied to other consumers," Manohar said.
Bescom hopes to save 2,400Mw daily when all its planned 150 Kusum-C stations are operational.
Energy minister KJ George said: "Our objective is to generate 3,000Mw under the Kusum-C scheme over the next 18 months. By this monsoon, we intend to add at least 300Mw of solar power to the grid through these plants. We have been appealing to MLAs to help us identify land within their constituencies for speedy implementation of the project."
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