THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With water for drinking purposes and irrigation gaining priority on account of the drought and looming 2017 summer, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) has been asked to tone down internal hydropower generation to a minimum.
This week, internal generation from all sources including hydel was cut down to a mere 3 million units (MU) on three consecutive days, perhaps the lowest in recent years. This meant that the state produced just five per cent of the daily demand. Power sector sources said the plan is to keep daily hydel generation within 9 MU as good rainfall is now expected only next May. (Normal hydro generation rate during non-summer months is around 18-20 MU.) Daily demand, at present 55 MU, is expected to cross the 80 MU mark the coming summer.
On the other hand, with the Left Government stiffly opposed to curbs on power supply, the KSEB is looking sharp to ensure adequate power purchase deals and ‘corridor’ space in the transmission lines to import supplies once summer peaks. With monsoon playing truant, water storage in hydel dams is already low, top KSEB officials said.
“There is no crisis as such, despite a rainfall deficit of 43 per cent, southwest and north-east monsoons combined,” said KSEB chairman and managing director K Elangovan. Summer, he said, will be crossed riding piggy-back on power purchases to avoid loadshedding, he said. In addition to the long-term agreements that are already in place, the KSEB is in the process of tying up more power from outside to meet the summer head-on. It has also approached central transmission utility Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) for space on inter-state transmission lines, Elangovan said.