THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Struggling with deepening power crisis and facing mounting complaints over unannounced outages, the government has decided to put a system in place to alert the public about power cuts at the feeder level. While the system may not be 100% accurate, it will help the public to an extent, Power Minister Sunny Joseph said on Wednesday. His remarks followed Chief Minister V D Satheesan’s assertion earlier in the day that the government was trying to resolve the state’s power issues by September 15.
“There were complaints from the public about unscheduled restrictions. It was due to the unexpected curbs from the regional load dispatch. We will take steps to inform the public and facilities will be put in place,” Sunny told reporters.
He said the state’s per-day consumption had risen to 5,200 MW in September from 3,794 MW the same month last year. “The crisis is not specific to Keralam,” he said, attributing it to climate change and rain shortage across the nation.
“Keralam generates only 25% of the electricity it consumes. We looked at several measures, including real-time market, day-ahead market and short-term agreements to purchase electricity, but since those attempts failed, there is a supply restriction,” Sunny said, adding that Keralam was also prioritising projects for electricity generation. The crisis, he said, may continue for a few more weeks and the government and the KSEB were working to tackle the issue.
In his post-cabinet briefing earlier in the day, Satheesan criticised the previous LDF government for cancelling the Power Purchase Agreement signed in 2012-2014 during the UDF’s tenure. He said the state would not have faced an acute electricity shortage had the agreement existed.
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