THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Within a day of imposing restrictions on power consumption during peak hours, KSEB has yielded results by saving 200 mw of power. This has led the board officials to review the situation within two days and impose further restrictions. But to make matters worse, the consumers have been slapped with an additional 10 paisa surcharge along with the existing 9 paisa surcharge per unit of power in this month’s power bill.
The KSEB has also decided to set up a control room to address the raging issue of consumers protesting in front of section offices when power outages happen.
It is aimed at coordinating the situation to address the overload in feeders, manage the load at substations and also understand the demand and availability of power in various places. Power Minister K Krishnankutty expressed happiness as the consumers are cooperating with the government’s proposals to bring down power consumption. He informed that maximum demand for power had come down to 5,676 mw after consumers took up the directive of the state government seriously.
“The control room will help smoothen the distribution and transmission in power sector. It will be managed by officials belonging to the distribution and transmission wings and the State Load Dispatch Centre. We have decided to ensure that the control room functions as long as the current power crisis exists,” said Krishnankutty.
Currently, there is a 9 paisa surcharge in the power bill which the consumers are already paying. This has been increased by an additional 10 paisa resulting in a total of 19 paisa which is the fuel surcharge for March.
But various trade union officials have alleged that there is nothing much to boast about saving 200 mw of power as it was achieved due to switching off feeders at Palakkad and Malappuram on Friday night where there was 10 minutes - 20 minutes load shedding.
“Moreover, most of the commercial establishments have been using LED lamps for decoration. So there is not much power saving happening as claimed by the power minister,” said a KSEB trade union leader.
Control room
The KSEB has also decided to set up a control room to address the raging issue of consumers protesting in front of section offices when power outages happen
It is aimed at coordinating the situation to address the overload in feeders, manage the load at substations and also understand the demand and availability of power in various places