The reservoirs of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) have recorded fairly good inflow from the catchment areas during the past 36 hours, Mohammed Ali Rawther, KSEB Member (Generation), has said.
Mr. Rawther told The Hindu that the State’s total power consumption on Friday was 55 million units (mu). Of this, 15 mu was the contribution of hydropower projects and 27 mu was the Central share.
He said the catchment areas of the Idukki hydropower project had received 140 mm rainfall on Friday, leading to an inflow that would be enough to generate 30 mu of power. The storage position in the Idukki arch dam had reached 17.25 per cent of its total capacity as on Saturday morning. This was 22 per cent on the same date the previous year, he said.
The KSEB member said the Kakki-Anathode twin reservoirs of the State’s second largest hydroelectric project of Sabarigiri had received an inflow of water that would be enough to generate 19 mu of power on Friday.
With this, the storage position in the Sabarigiri reservoir had gone up to 11 per cent of its total capacity.
Valve replacedMr. Rawther said the replacement of the damaged butterfly valve of Penstock II leading to generators III and IV had been completed.
Technical inspection of the penstock pipes by a KSEB expert team was under way, and the filling of the penstock with water would begin on Monday.
He said the KSEB was expected to resume power generation at the Moozhiyar power house of the Sabarigiri project by Friday.
Mr. Rawther said the 77.5-MW Neryanmangalam hydropower project and the 180-MW Lower Periyar power project were running to full capacity.
The shutters of the Lower Periyar dam and the Kallarkutty dam were kept open for a few hours on Friday owing to heavy inflow, he said.
