KOCHI: For the second consecutive day, Keralam managed to avoid power cut on Friday.
The KSEB was forced to impose power regulations from September 2 with consumption spiking due to a prolonged dry spell and availability of power on the national grid declining sharply because of a deepening coal crisis and the El Nino-induced hot and humid weather.
However, the power consumption in North Indian states has decreased since Monday as heavy rains brought the mercury down. Top officials with the KSEB had held talks with the electricity department officials in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha, where they were able to arrange more power. The peak demand in Bihar, which had touched 10,000 MW during summer, declined to 7,000 MW on Wednesday.
The sharp fall in temperature reduced power consumption and improved the availability of power on the national exchange.
The KSEB was able to source 300 MW power from Gridco, Odisha, and 100 MW power from Andhra Pradesh through the power exchange on Thursday night. On Wednesday, the KSEB got an additional 100 MW power from Bihar through the contingency market.
The availability in the real-time market, where power is traded at Rs 10 per unit, also increased on Thursday. The KSEB was able to purchase 500-750 MW power from the real-time market.
As availability increased, the price of power dipped from Rs 10 per unit to Rs 2.70 per unit after 8pm on Thursday. This helped the KSEB remove power restrictions.
As the national-grid availability improved, the KSEB reduced the power generation from its hydel projects. The daily internal generation, which stood at 22.84 million units on Sunday, was reduced to 11.23 million units on Thursday. The daily power import from outside the state rose from 68.78 million units on Monday to 82.41 million units on Thursday.
Storage in major dams
Idukki: 61% Sabarigiri: 63% Sholayar: 86% Idamalayar: 69% Banasurasagar: 78%
Storage in dams on Sept 24: 61.56%
Storage during same day in 2025: 76.69%