Kerala will continue to get power from the Indira Gandhi super thermal power station, Jhajjar, Haryana, up to May 2013, but at a reduced volume. The Jhajjar power had originally come as a windfall to Kerala after Delhi forfeited its share in Oct. The original allocation period had ended on November 30, but as per a new decision of the Union Power Ministry, Kerala will get 50 MW till May 31. Both Kerala and Andhra Pradesh had scored from an earlier decision of Delhi to surrender 231.17 MW from Jhajjar. Kerala had been getting 100 MW as part of the daily allocation from the Central pool and Andhra Pradesh, 131.17 MW.
The latter’s share of the surrendered power has gone up to 181.17 MW from December 1 onwards and this will continue till May. “Since the 50 MW is a Ministry of Power allocation, we won’t face problems in transmission of the power to Kerala,” said Gayatri Nair, chief engineer, KSEB (commercial and tariff). Currently, Kerala gets around 1200 MW daily by way of Central allocation. With the north-east monsoon disappointing, the KSEB has been banking heavily on the Central share and power purchases to meet daily demand. On Dec 10, the SERC will hear the public’s opinion on a KSEB request for compulsory power restrictions. The KSEB argues that a fuel surcharge of Rs 2 per unit will have to be collected from consumers from July 2013 onwards if power supply is not restricted urgently.