Water level in the Banasurasagar reservoir of the Kuttiyadi hydroelectric project at Padinjarethara has fallen considerably with the day temperature remaining high for the past three months.
The depleting water level in the reservoir is raising the prospect of a power crisis and water supply in Malabar. At 4 p.m. on Tuesday, the water level was 763 metres as against the full reservoir level (FRL) of 775.6 m. The water level during the same day last year was 762.7 m, KSEB sources said.
Though the maximum capacity of the reservoir was 209 million metre cube (mmc), the remaining water in the reservoir was only 67.35 mmc, which would be sufficient to generate 93.541 million unit of power, the sources said.
The dam authorities were providing one mmc of water every day to the Kakkayam power house for power generation for the past three months. One mmc of water could generate 1.389 million units of power. The dam authorities provided 223 mmc of water during June 10-May 31 last year as against 168 mmc this year so far.
Moreover, nearly 25,000 metre cube (mc) of water was being released to the Kabani river every day to tackle the drought situation in the area from March 8 this year. “We have provided 3,26,223 mc of water for this purpose so far,” the sources said.
The summer rain in the catchment area of the reservoir was very low this year. The decreasing water level would adversely affect the hydroelectric project in the near future, the sources added.
