With the southwest monsoon abruptly going weak over Kerala during the past two days, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) is keeping its fingers crossed vis a vis the loadshedding situation. If the monsoon continues to remain weak, the KSEB will be forced to seek an extension of the loadshedding, according to KSEB sources.
The power utility has been in a flurry with the power consumption levels returning to summer levels on Wednesday after it dipped phenomenally during the past week. Although the KSEB had sought an extension for the loadshedding up to June 30, the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission had allowed it till only June 15, when the power situation will be reviewed.
KSEB chairman M Sivasankar said that the KSEB had not yet approached the Commission seeking extension of the one-and-a-half hour cyclical loadshedding. ‘’But the inflow (into the hydel reservoirs) is not as expected. We had a review last week. The daily power consumption had fallen drastically up to Tuesday, but it abruptly went up to 53.05 million units on Wednesday. We are not in a position to take a call now,’’ Sivasankar said.
With the consumption shooting up on Wednesday, the hydel generation was upped to 20.5 MU to meet the demand. In all, 30.4 MU were imported on Wednesday and another 3.03 MU were procured through the Unscheduled Interchange (UI).
Meanwhile, the Met Department has reported that the southwest monsoon has been weak over Kerala. Irikkur in Kannur district and Kozha in Kottayam received the maximum rainfall up to 8.30 a.m. Thursday - five centimetres each.
Met officials have forecast that rain and thundershowers are expected in many parts of the state up to Saturday morning.