THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite the state receiving a significant amount of summer showers over the last week, the Idukki reservoir’s water level is abysmally low.
As of Thursday at 7am, the water level stood at 2334.16ft, compared to last year’s level of 2321.08ft on the same day.
The Full Reservoir Level is 2403ft, and the Maximum Water Level is 2408.50ft. The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) has come under flak for not enhancing hydro generation, which underscores the gap between production and distribution of power.
According to the power minister’s office, the water level in the Idukki reservoir has not risen due to lesser rainfall in the catchment areas. An official from the power department stated that nearly all 12 Hydro Electric Projects (HEPs), consisting of clusters of dams in the state, are experiencing a similar challenge. “As of Thursday, the board can generate 1231.91 MW power from all the reservoirs, indicating it has only 29.75% storage capacity. The state’s largest reservoir in Idukki has a water capacity of only 32.89%. Additionally, the water inflow from catchment areas to all the reservoirs could generate 15.504 MW power in the last 24 hours as per the statistics received on Thursday at 7 am”, said a power ministry official.
On Wednesday, the board generated 24.1583 MW of power while the consumption stood at 80.6675 million units. The board had anticipated an inflow of 230.96 million units until May. But the statistics released by the State Load Dispatch Centre, Kalamassery, on Thursday at 7am reveal that the inflow could generate only 163. 907 million units. It means that despite getting good summer showers over the past one week, there is a shortage of hydropower to generate 67.053 million units for this month alone. A board official told TNIE that now the onus is on the Southwest monsoon which is expected to hit the Kerala coast by May end.
“Fortunately, the power consumption has come down due to the incessant summer showers. A week ago, the state faced record power consumption, prompting the board to purchase power at exorbitant rates. But now the issue before the board is the poor inflow into the dams which could be addressed with the arrival of Southwest monsoon on May 29”, said a board official.