Power Plants in Karnataka

Shivanasamudram - 1902. The first Installation 6 x 720 KW

The power transmission of Kolar was effected by two parallel lines, 60ft apart. The three copper wires of zero B & S guage and each line form an equilateral triangle with 40" sides, the upper insulator being carried on top of the pole and the lower ones by a cross arm. The transmission voltage was 35KV. Step down transformers at KGF were stepping down voltage from 35000V to 2300V. The wooden poles used for this 35KV line were imported from Australia.

Shimsha Project - 1939 - 40

Shimsha Project; second of its kind under Mysore government was utilizing the head of 600ft in Shimsha valley whereas the head available at Shiva was only 450ft. The water from Shiva balancing reservoir was diverted to Shimsha valley to run two generators of 806 MW each. The first generator was commissioned and 18th April 1940 and the second on 15th June 1940. The power generated was transmitted by looping in and looping out the shivanasamudra - KGF 78KV lines which were already in service. The frequency of generation was at 25 cycles. However while ordering the generator, care was taken to enable conversion of them into 50 cycles with little change in the generator configuration.

Jog Hydra Electric Project

One of the most important requirement of the project was to store the lange quantity of water flowing in Sharavathi river during the monsoon season and make use of it to produce electricity during summer months. When the flow in the river would be negligible. Therefore a dam of 114ft high was proposed at the place called Hirebhaskar which is about 21 Km's on the upstream side of the falls. The water from the dam led to a small dam at Kargal, which is 21ft High and 672ft long located 16kms from the downstream of the main dam. Then the water is allowed to sirur balancing reservoir at Jog and then to fore bay from where, it is let in to 4 pen stalk pipes through a trash rack and let to the power station to run the turbines.