THIRUVANANTHPAURAM: KSEB Limited is bracing itself to take on the most demanding summer ever. It is estimated that there will be an unprecedented 27 per cent increase in daily power consumption this summer.
If the daily consumption last summer was 65 million units, the utility expects the us-age to touch 85 MU. The existing record is 80.44 MU that was set on April 29, 2016. At the moment, the daily consumption moves in the 75-79 MU range.
Still, the public utility maintains that such a massive spurt in consumption will not precipitate a power crisis in the state. “Our reservoirs are good enough to see us through till May 31. We will use the water optimally, not overworking our hydel stations, but yet maintaining the generation at an average of 22 to 25 MU,” power minister M.M. Mani said.
On March 20, the average water level in the state’s reservoirs was 50 per cent; last year same time, it was only 42 per cent. But however much the cost-effective hydel power is used, it can meet only 30 per cent of the state’s requirements. The challenge is to find the right power sources to bring in the remaining nearly 50 MU required for a day’s consumption. “For this we have the allocation from central generating stations, and also the long-term agreements that we had struck with private power producers,” a top KSEBL official said. n Pg 6
1,679 MW will flow in as cost-effective central allocation during the summer, supposing that snags will not develop during summer in central stations to temporarily halt supply. And from long-term contracts, 1,215 MW is expected. Together the supply from these two sources will take care of 68-70 per cent of the summer demand.
However, considering the huge summer consumption, the power utility has not ruled out sourcing power from costly naphtha and diesel stations like NTPC Kayamkulam, and Brahmapuram and Kozhikode diesel power plants. On March 15, KSEBL had sourced 0.68 MU from these diesel stations at a cost of nearly '7 a unit. These costly stations had not been tapped for nearly a year, with any shortages met from power exchanges or day-ahead markets.
