Consumption rises, KSEB may soon be buying power

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Right after the insistent early September rains have held back, power consumption in the state has shot up to pre-monsoon levels. The rains came to an abrupt end by the evening of September 9 and on the next day, power consumption shot up by nearly 10 million units, from 51 million units to 59 MU. And on September 11, it shot beyond the 60 MU mark to reach nearly 62 MU, the kind of consumption seen only during the height of summer, during April and May of this year. The gap between the inflow to the reservoirs and hydel generation, too, has widened drastically.

On September 6, while the inflow was 50 million units the generation was 21 MU. On September 13, the inflow dipped considerably to 32.7 MU while the generation was 24 MU, the gap narrowing to less than 9 MU, nearly as worse as during the drought months of 2012. The inflow-generation gap during the first week of September was better than even the best average inflow-generation gap (43 MU – 23 MU) recorded during 2007. The more the gap the more the water that is stored in the reservoir for future use.
 

“When there was copious rain, KSEB had stopped costly outside purchase, depended almost fully on hydel generation and cheap power from the central generating stations. Now with consumption on the rise, it will be difficult for the company to continue this pattern and soon will have to purchase from costly diesel stations,” a top KSEB Limited source said. At the moment, however, KSEB Limited sources only a relatively paltry 0.22 MU from costly naphtha and diesel stations.