It’s 11 pm. A
typical night in Bengaluru. After meeting with friends, one wanders out of a
pub and into the streets, bathed in incandescent glory that cascades down the
buildings. As one drives past Indiranagar 100 feet Road, Nike, Adidas,
Blackberry, Allen Solly stores, one after the other whizz by. While drowning in the hallucinogen that is
capitalism one can’t help but notice that the stores are desolate, but the
lights inside are on. Bengaluru, the IT capital of India, is alight but the
teeming workers are long gone. Faceless mannequins gaze out of showrooms,
enjoying the spotlights.
A drive post
10 pm around the city’s busiest localities, such as the shopping districts of Indiranagar
and prominent office areas such as Whitefield and Marathahalli reveals a
strange and recent urban phenomenon. Perhaps emulating the west, most offices and
commercial spaces leave their lights on well past business hours, even after
the shutters are drawn. The city never sleeps they say. In this age of alarming
depletion of natural resources and need for energy conservation, doesn’t this
unwarranted usage of energy smack of environmental irresponsibility?
‘Keep your
lights’ on is a figurative way to say that keep your business afloat. It’s
often a tool of marketing or visual merchandising where one hopes that even
after business hours are done, passers-by lured by the mannequins or products
on display would visit the store next day, presumably to purchase. While
marketing is the most common reason for keeping lights on, some showrooms also
use it as deterrent for crime since burglaries are less likely to happen in a
lighted area.
Bengaluru’s
IT capital status and the 24 hour economy means that a lot of companies work according
to US or UK timings that necessitates the use of power through the night. Also, several new age companies that offer
flexible timings leave their lights on to encourage and help employees who come
to work at hours convenient to them, which may include late nights. While some
offices claim the lights are left on for the janitorial staff to perform their
duties, offices that are part of larger parks or work campuses point out that
the control of electricity is operated centrally and that they don’t have the choice
of turning off or saving electricity. At the expense of development are our
environmental costs escalating?
The main sources
of power in the Karnataka are thermal and hydel, followed by alternate sources
such as solar and wind. Bengaluru gets its supply largely through thermal power
(mostly coal, gas and diesel and sometimes nuclear), which is generated from
the various power stations in the state and from centrally owned CGS or Central
Generating Stations that are distributed across the country, such as Neyveli
Lignite Corporation in Tamil Nadu and Kaiga Atomic Station in North Karnataka. Each CGS provides 1000 MW to the state it’s
located in. The other source is NCEP (Non-Conventional Energy Project) that
uses wind, solar, and biomass to generate power. KPCL, (Karnataka Power
Corporation Limited) is the state agency that is in charge of procuring power
from different stations, including from other states if need be. Another state
agency, Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KTPCL) then transmits
the power to the different ESCOMs. Typically, Bengaluru is allotted an average
of 2000 MW per day, and uses up 45 million unit of power while the rest of the state
gets 6000 MW, consuming 140 million. Bengaluru consumes 1/3rd of the
electricity of the state. Though BESCOM (Bangalore Electricity Supply Company) is
allotted 2000 MW per day for the city, most often the demand exceeds supply by
at least 300-600 MW, and following supposed directions from the government to
provide 24-hour supply to the city; BESCOM draws more from the grid.
In Bengaluru,
BESCOM provides electricity in two slabs, one for domestic use (residents) and
the other for commercial. Commercial spaces may further come under another category
called LT users (lower tension, tension being a French word for voltage) that
are used by small shops and businesses, and HT (high tension) used by organisations
that require high inputs of power such as film studios and big offices. Off
late,gated communities and multi- storied residential complexes have come under
HT category. On April 11th of 2017, the KERC (Karnataka Electricity
Regulatory Committee) announced an 8% increase in tariff resulting in an
average hike in tariff of around Re 1.48 per unit. As per the new guidelines,
one unit (1000 KW) of power for commercial purposes costs Rs. 5 for the first
50 units and 7.15 onward for the next 50.
A casual
stroll around the city reveals that a showroom, on a minimum, leaves around 6
-10 spotlights on during the night. Assuming that the store shuts at 10 pm, and
opens at 10am the next day; the lights are left on for 12 hours.
A typical
spotlight used by a store is a halogen lamp that is available in different
wattages, ranging from 3, 5, 8,12, 17 35 80 watts etc.
An 80 watts
light, used for 12 hour for will consume 960 watt .One unit of electricity is 1000
KW. Hence one light bulb consumes 0.96 units
for the night. In monetary terms, this translates into Rs .6.86 per lamp.
Thereby, if the store leaves 6 spotlights on through the night, the total cost
would be Rs. 41 per day. Subsequently, the monthly expenditure for keeping the
lights on through the night would hover around Rs.1235. While the monetary
expense of leaving the lights on may not be a big concern for showrooms or
corporates, the environmental costs are a cause for concern. Also, when the electricity
demand of the city increases and BESCOM is forced to draw more from the grid to
feed the city, the rural areas may have to face the brunt. Most rural areas
never have continuous or uninterrupted power supply, with daily power cuts
ranging around 4 hours minimum. Though government officials promise that rural
power supply is not being comprised for the city, with the rampant shortage of
power all through the country especially during summer, the electricity board
maybe forced to distribute power unequally.
In terms of
an environmental perspective, the costs are heavier. Environmental experts peg
the carbon dioxide emission factor (amount of CO2 released per unit of
electricity) for electricity to be around 0.527 kg per unit. Therefore a single
store that leaves its 6 spotlights on through the night emits around 3.12 kgs
of CO2 everyday. Imagine the number of shops around the city and their
respective CO2 emissions. The numbers are staggering.
Unless one is
a Trump supporter and strongly believes that global warming is hoax, these numbers
are worrying and question our responsibility towards the environment. Solutions
include shifting to motion-sensor lights (to discourage criminal activity) and
LED lamps that consume less electricity. But the larger question looms large. Do
we want a city that depletes energy on a gigantic scale and contributes to
heavy light pollution? Do we need advertising at the cost of our rural
population? Do we really need a city that never sleeps?
-Originally published in The News Minute on May 28th 2017
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