South-west monsoon puts up a good show in the first week in Kerala
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A week since the south-west monsoon lashed the Kerala coast, the state as a whole has received more than normal showers with the southern districts registering rainfall in the ‘excess’ to ‘large excess’ category.
Against a normal rainfall of 12.7 cm, the state as a whole received 13.5 cm on an average till Wednesday, which denotes an increase of six per cent from the normal.
While Ernakulam and Kollam received rainfall in ‘large excess’ category (ranging from 64 to 70 per cent from the normal), Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta registered rainfall in the ‘excess’ category. Thrissur and Kozhikode received normal rainfall. Kannur, Idukki, Kasargod, Malappuram and Wayanad registered deficient rainfall.
Heavy Rainfall Warning
With the monsoon picking up pace, the Met Department has issued a heavy rainfall warning for the state. Rainfall ranging from seven to 11 cm is likely to occur at a few places in Kerala in the coming days, the weatherman has warned. Since strong winds from the northwesterly direction with speeds occasionally reaching up to 55 km is likely along the coast, fishermen have been asked to exercise caution.
Despite heavy rain, water storage in reservoirs still low
Though the week-old monsoon has been fairly strong over Kerala, its impact is yet to be felt on the state’s internal hydropower generation. Water storage in the hydel reservoirs continues to stand at a meagre 12 per cent, the same as on May 29. The India Meteorological Department(IMD) had declared the onset of the southwest monsoon on May 30.
As on June 6, Tuesday, all hydel reservoirs combined have water enough to generate only 499 million units (MU), the lowest since 2013. The Idukki reservoir has 11 per cent storage.
Last year, hydel dams had enough combined storage to generate 845 MU on the same day. This being the situation, hydel contribution to the state’s total daily demand continues to hover below 10 million units (MU). On Tuesday, power imports accounted for 50 MU of the total consumption of 63 MU. KSEB officers say they are expecting results only towards the middle of June.
"The rainfall has been good so far. But the impact is yet to be felt. We are expecting the results only by June 15,’’ N Venugopal, director (Generation-Electrical), KSEB, said. Although the state had passed through an extremely hot summer, power consumption had not shot up as expected.