KOCHI: With daytime temperatures prematurely crossing 35C, power consumption in Kerala is all set to breach records. Last year, the state set a new high on April 19, when consumption touched 102.9 million units (MU). As conditions similar to a heat wave envelope the state, consumption is soaring, adding to the woes of the KSEB.
Daily consumption crossed 95 MU on February 21, and rising demand has forced the board to approach the national grid to ensure availability of power. “A crisis appears imminent. I have convened a meeting of top officials to discuss ways to overcome the crisis and to explore availability of power from the national grid,” said Power Minister K Krishnankutty.
According to meteorologists, the impact of climate change and El Niño has led to the rise in temperatures. Except for a couple of weeks of cool weather in hill stations such as Munnar and Wayanad, Kerala did not experience winter this time and the mercury started rising soon after the withdrawal of the Northeast monsoon.
Daily power consumption in Kerala, which normally hovers around 75 MU, has jumped up by up to 20 MU in the past couple of weeks. After a deficit Southwest monsoon, KSEB reduced generation from October, in anticipation of a harsh summer. According to sources, water in the major reservoirs is currently on par with last year’s levels. “Following deficit monsoon, we anticipated high demand during the summer season and have been operating the hydel projects on conservative mode from October,” a KSEB official said.
Power consumption
over the past 5 days
Feb 19 92.45 MU
Feb 20 93.76 MU
Feb 21 95.22 MU
Feb 22 94.87 MU
Feb 23 92.83 MU
Storage in major reservoirs
Idukki 53%
Sabarigiri 65%
Sholayar 66%
Idamalayar 56%
Banasura Sagar 47%
Power production at 22 MU
“We purchased power from the national grid aggressively when charges were low. This helped ensure reservoir levels on par with last year’s levels. The plan was to ensure maximum availability of hydel power for the summer. However, consumption exceeded expectations with the mercury soaring,” the official said.
Hydel power generation, which stood at 10 MU in the first week of February, has been raised to 22 MU. The state gets 16 MU through the long-term power purchase agreement and the allocation from central generating stations is 26 MU. The KSEB gets 4 MU through swap arrangement and 6 MU through short-term purchases. The state purchases 10 MU from the real-time market and 3 MU through open access. Power is purchased from the real-time market at the rate of `9-10 a unit.
Max temperature on Saturday*
Punalur (Kollam): 38.2
Palakkad: 37.0
Alappuzha: 36.3
T’Puram City: 35.6
Kannur Airport: 35.4
Kozhikode: 35.8
Kannur: 34.5
Vellanikkara (Thrissur): 34.4
Kochi CIAL: 34.3
Kochi City: 31.4
* degrees Celsius