Kerala State Electricity Board in crisis as rains play truant

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The betrayal of the southwest monsoon and the patchy start of the northeast monsoon have pushed KSEB Limited into a major power crisis. The public utility has come to the realisation that all the advance power-purchase agreements worth nearly 1500 MW it had struck in the last two years will not be sufficient to tide over the power crisis during the summer of 2017. Left with no choice, KSEBL has invited bids to secure an additional 200 MW short-term power to see the state through during the coming summer; 100 MW round-the-clock power for the three months from March 1 to May 31, 2017, and another 100 peak-hour power from the same period.

But it is not just enough to invite bids for 200 MW, the state should also have the transmission capacity to transport the power to the state. At the moment, its transmission network cannot take the additional load. “Our plan is to construct an additional transformer at the Areekode substation (Kozhikode) before March next year to bring in the additional power,” a top KSEBL official said. A new transformer was the only way out as the completion of the Edamon-Kochi stretch of the Thirunelveli-Kochi-Madakkathara 400 kv line by March next year has been ruled out.

Till the monsoon turned its back, KSEBL was sitting pretty. It had entered into long-term agreements for 1415 MW. Of this, 150 MW started flowing in from December 17, 2015, 141.5 MW from April 1, 2016, and 287 MW from June 1, 2016. The 397 MW the state is receiving on the basis of a couple of medium-term pacts will expire just before the onset of summer, on February 1, 2017. But KSEBL had planned in advance and had ensured that 200 MW will flow into the state for four months from March 1, 2017. “However, we did not bargain for such a weak monsoon,” a top KSEBL official said.

The inflow into the state’s reservoirs was only 55 percent of the estimated flow for the year. “And as a result of an increase in surface temperature, power consumption too shown a marked increase over last year,” said power minister Kadakampally Surendran. “If the daily consumption last year was 61 million units, this year it has shot up to 64 MU,” the minister said. If the northeast monsoon turns out to be poor then even the additional 200 MW will not be enough for the coming summer.