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Weak monsoon: KSEB walks a tightrope

P. Venugopal

No move to impose curbs on power supply
Drop in electricity from the Central pool

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite uncertainties, Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) does not think it necessary now to impose any restrictions in power supply.

The KSEB went through its routine monthly review of the power situation in the State at a meeting here on Saturday. Two things are bothering it now. The monsoon so far has been deficient by 29 per cent. And there has been a sudden drop in the availability of electricity from the Central power generating stations last week. The State had of late been receiving around 900 MW of power from the Central stations. This came down to around 650 MW a week ago. Such a gap necessitates running the hydro-electric stations full throttle, which is risky because of the poor monsoon so far. Besides, it will also entail buying additional power from expensive sources.

A senior KSEB official told The Hindu that the drop in power availability from the Central stations was now a problem common to all the southern States. When the issue came up at a meeting of the Southern Regional Power Committee held in Tirupati on Thursday, Central power generating companies such as the National Thermal Power Corporation assured the electricity boards that the situation would improve within a week’s time.

The monsoon too is beginning to show signs of picking up. The hydroelectric reservoirs had been receiving fairly good inflow during the last one week. On Thursday, they received inflow worth more than 60 million units and on Friday more than 50 million units. The inflow had been worth around 40 million units daily on an average during the last week.

The India Meteorology Department is expecting the present surge in monsoon conditions to last into the middle of next week.

“We are banking on the good indications. The storage position in the hydroelectric reservoirs at the moment is the lowest at this time of the year since 2005. It is just 501 million units now,” the official said.

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