Power dips as voters queue up before booths

Thiruvananthapuram: A higher voter turnout seems to be inversely proportional to the daily power consumption. The daily demand for power in the state dropped to its lowest level this summer on April 10, the day when over 74 percent of the Kerala electorate voted in the Lok Sabha polls.

Daily consumption, which had been hovering near 65 million units in spite of a surge in summer rain, dramatically declined to 57 MU on the day of elections. A week ago, during the height of the campaign, daily utilisation had touched ‘never  before seen levels’ of 72 MU. KSEB sources said that high voter turnout  brings down power consumption because major power guzzlers like industrial units and large shopping complexes down shutters to allow their employees to exercise their franchise. That the fall in consumption was merely a ‘one-day wonder’ was borne out by the fact that power use shot up the very next day.  From the summer’s low of 57 MU on election day it scaled back to cross the 60 MU mark the day after, even though government offices functioned as though it was a holiday.

The connection between a higher voter turnout and lower power use has not come as a revelation to  the KSEB. “We have witnessed this connection even earlier  during the 2011 Assembly 2009 Lok Sabha polls. On both these occasions, daily consumption had shown a marked decline on the day of voting,” a top KSEB source said. On April 16, 2009, when the last Lok Sabha election was held in the state, the day’s consumption had fallen to 44 MU from 49 MU the previous day. Similarly on April 13, 2011, during the last Assembly elections, consumption fell to 51 MU from 57 MU.