The Hindu Business Line : Mescom launches `dedicated power' scheme

THE Mangalore Electricity Supply Company (Mescom) has come out with a scheme for consumers to provide `dedicated power', if the consumer is ready to consume 25 per cent more power than the previous financial year.

The scheme may benefit those industrial consumers having three-phase power connection but who do not get power all the time.

The Mescom Managing Director, Mr S. Sumanth, told presspersons here on Thursday that two companies in Shimoga district had come forward to avail themselves of the scheme, which was introduced in January this year. Efforts were on to popularise it in other districts too. He was speaking at a `Meet the Press' programme, organised by the Dakshina Kannada Working Journalists' Union. "It is a win-win situation for both the company and the consumer," he said. Under the scheme, Mescom would estimate the infrastructure development cost for dedicated power supply to customers. Depending on the location of the consumer, it would invest from 50 per cent to 70 per cent of the cost. However, the consumer would have to invest 25 per cent of the infrastructure development cost. The investment would depend on total value in real terms, he said.

"Our aim is to provide quality power to consumers," he said, adding the scheme, probably, was the first of its kind in electricity supply. Mescom has around 14 lakh consumers in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Shimoga, Kodagu and Chikmagalur districts. Industrial consumers, who are only 5 per cent of the total consumers, pay Mescom above its cost of supply. Mr Sumanth said the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd (KIOCL), which utilises 0.9 million units to one million units a day, contributed Rs 12 crore as revenue every month.

Asked about the energy losses in Mescom, he said the company was making efforts to bring down the level of losses. During 2004-05, Mangalore city recorded an energy loss of 11.36 per cent. This loss stood at 17.44 per cent in Chikmagalur. Stating that Mangalore city was poised for growth in the coming years with large-scale investments by many companies, he said.

Mescom would gear up to face future demands and improve its infrastructure.

Mescom had submitted a Rs 300-crore proposal to the Union Government under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojna, to create rural electricity infrastructure in five districts under its jurisdiction, he said.

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