Rain in the Western Ghats in the last fortnight has brought some hopes to the power sector as the combined storage in three major hydel reservoirs of the State has marginally surpassed previous year’s levels.
Of course, the previous year’s storage too was “poor” owing to deficient monsoon. But, at least the fear of this year’s storage being worse than last year’s has been overcome.
The water level at Linganamakki reservoir that provides water for Sharavathi hydel power project; Supa reservoir, the source of water for Kali hydro electric project, and Mani reservoir that provides water for Varahi hydro electric project was much lesser than the previous year’s figures till the third week of July owing to deficient monsoon. With catchment areas of these reservoirs receiving heavy rain for the last 15 days, there has been a steady enhancement in the water level. While the water level in Linganamakki reservoir on August 8 was just 2.5 ft lesser than the level recorded here on the corresponding day in 2016, the levels in Mani and Supa reservoirs were more than that of the figures recorded in the previous year.
The total storage in the three hydel reservoirs can help generate 3,860 million units (MU) of power as against the previous year’s 3,688 MUs. This would mean that presently, the hydel reservoirs have a combined storage of more than 172 MUs more than that of the corresponding period in the previous year.
When spread over till June 30, 2018 when the inflows start from the next south-west monsoon, the combined hydel storage can help generate 11.8 MUs of power a day as against the previous year’s level of 11.28 MUs.
The break-up of storage shows that Linganamakki has a storage that can generate 1,840 MUs (as against 1,983 MUs last year), while Supa accounts for 1,612 MUs (1,324 MUs last year) and Mani has storage that can generate 407 MUs (381 MUs last year). However, power experts are not excited with the marginal increase in storage levels over previous year’s figures as the total storage accounts for only 44.2% of the full capacity. The only solace is that the total storage in the corresponding period of previous year accounted for 42.44%. The hydel storage is crucial for Karnataka to ensure proper power load management during peak hours, especially during summer when the demand shoots up beyond availability.
Interestingly, ever since Linganamakki reservoir was constructed in 1964, the water level has reached full reservoir level only 13 times and the previous occasion was in 2014. The possibilities of the reservoir attaining full reservoir level this year are slim as the south-west monsoon will be active in the region only till first week of September and the quantum of rain received here from north-east monsoon is not substantial, experts observe.
