The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) is much relieved by a sudden drop in power consumption in the State following summer rain and the culmination of the election process.
Power consumption had touched a high of more than 70 million units a day a week ago when both the summer and the election campaign were on a high. According to the system statistics maintained by the State Load Despatch Centre, it dropped to 59.594 million units on Thursday. The average daily consumption this month till this Thursday was 65.7602 million units.
The drop in consumption enabled the KSEB to regulate its dependence on hydel generation to 14.9522 million units on Thursday from the level of around 30 million units a day during the first four days of this month (with the rest of the total demand being managed by thermal power generation within the State and through energy imports).
The reservoirs in the State, as on Thursday, had water storage for generating 1,469.91 million units. This means that the KSEB will have to keep the average daily hydel generation at the level of around 20 million units to enable it to keep sufficient water in the reservoirs to see it through the summer and into the first fortnight of June, in the event of a delayed onset of monsoon.
Meanwhile, weather charts of the India Meteorology Department (IMD) on Friday indicated that the State would continue to receive cool summer showers during the week ahead.
