Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying that Kerala deserves an allocation of 500 MW of power from the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP), the 1,000-MW first reactor of which is due for commissioning soon.
Mr. Chandy wrote the letter last week in the context of a demand Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had placed before the Centre for the entire quantity of power to be generated at KKNPP for her State.
Without mentioning anything about Tamil Nadu's demand, Mr. Chandy told the Prime Minister that Kerala had already been allotted 266 MW of power from the KKNPP. This was under the Gadjil formula being followed for sharing power from Central power generating stations among the States of the region.
Mr. Chandy, in his letter, brought to the Prime Minister's notice the sacrifice Kerala had been making all along by not constructing dams across many of its rivers with potential to generate cheap electricity. Since the shelving of the plan for setting up a hydroelectric project in the Silent Valley way back in the 1970s due to environmental reasons, the State had received sanction for no hydroelectric projects.
Kerala had paid a huge “opportunity cost” for the sake of conservation and deserved to be suitably compensated for that. The opportunity to generate much more hydroelectric power than at present existed in the State, but the State could not utilise it because of the need to protect the forests of the country. The country as a whole should recognise this sacrifice on the part of Kerala by ensuring for the State sufficient allocation of power from Central power generating stations, Mr. Chandy said.
He also told the Prime Minister about the crisis the State was facing in the power sector at the moment. The crisis had necessitated the imposition of restrictions in power supply to all categories of consumers, he said.
Keywords: KKNPP, Kudankulam nuclear plant, Kerala power crisis
What a spin - Kerala sacrificing ? It is the other states that are sacrificing their environment
for the sake of energy, Kerala does not want to take power from NTPC kayankulam in their own backyard because it is expensive; they do not want nuclear power because of radiation risk; no hydro power or inter state rive connection to preserve other environment. But it is OK if power from all these resources could be imported from neighboring states. What a hypocrisy!
anyone or anything preventing Kerala from setting up its own power station ? Ah wait, let other States spoil their green and why not demand a share from them - that's simple. And the millions of Kerala expatriates in other States can keep boasting how clean and green Kerala is !
What Kerala wants is, its land and water to remain pure and green while other States sacrifice all that and conveniently Kerala asks for a share as if its due. Arent they satisfied with pushing millions of Malaylees outside of Kerala taking up jobs in other States ? Can't the CM ask for Central help and setup their own power station ? Why should TN risk its land, water, environment and people safety concerns just to give power to other greedy states ?
The premise of the demand by Kerala is legitimate, though the quantity demanded, may or may not be its due share. KKNPP is a central government's project and all states have a stake in it, or at least the ones which were earmarked with, when the project began. TamilNadu cannot ask for all of the power generated, more than what it was earmarked with, as per the original project plan. One must be pretty dumb to argue that all the power belongs to T.N., because the power plant is located and operating in that state.
Looks like a valid argument. Kerala deserves more power from TamilNadu as Tamilnadu deserves the water from Kerala.
There is no uranium to run 17 of India's presently operating nuclear power plants of smaller wattage 250MW to 450MW. Leaders of southern states will only waste time expecting this miracle of 1000MW to suddenly surface from Koodankulam. It would be better if they took inspiration from Chief Minister Modi of Gujarat and installed solar panels over river canals in their respective States thereby not only saving precious water from evaporation but also providing 100% safe clean solar power that does not require heavy security, expensive foreign scientists (in lakhs) and deadly costly uranium which will leave a burden of radio-active waste forever for future generations. Not to forget the addition of 44 degrees fahrenhiet extra heat pumped into Tamil Nadu's environment every instant via the cooling pipes CSPs (concentrated solar plants) with molten salt towers allow day and night generation of gigwatt electricity and it would benefit the experts from Sunny Spain which needs jobs and money.
Protecting the forests and environment is the utmost duty of any elected government be it State or Center. While the so called sacrifices that Mr. Chandy is claiming to have done is to be certainly lent a listening ear, it is equally important to review how Kerala leveraged renewable energy sources so far. Also, we can't just have one state to be Oxygen Factory of the nation, all states have natural habitats that deserve to be protected. Kerala's nature reserves need to be protected. In fact all of us as a nation need to realize the responsibility we have in protecting the environment.
oh! Yes! what a wonderful help they are doing in all respects including mullaiperiayar dam etc.!
The making of another inter-state rivalry with TN asking for the entire 100% of Kudankollam... Centre will deviate from the normal and announced power-sharing pattern for central power stations at its own peril.
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