With the stifling summer heat continuing to drive up electricity usage in the State, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) has warned consumers that the power situation could worsen, especially between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m., if consumption is not brought under control immediately.
A meeting of the KSEB management held on April 30 (Tuesday) concluded that the situation could warrant drastic measures if consumption was not kept under check. The KSEB findings will be placed before a review meeting to be chaired by Electricity Minister K. Krishnankutty planned on May 2.
The per day consumption on April 29, stood at 113.15 million units (mu) and maximum demand (evening hours) at 5,717 megawatts (MW), both all-time highs for Kerala. “Last year, the peak demand on the same day was 5,024 MW. The is more than what our power system can handle. If consumption exceeds a certain limit, the grid will shut down on its own,” the State-run power utility said.
Kerala is currently facing a shortage of 500-600 MW during the evening hours. This demand-supply gap was being filled up through purchases from the power exchanges. However, there is now a shortage at the exchanges, a senior KSEB official said.
The KSEB warning has also come amid consumers accusing the KSEB of imposing unannounced load-sheddings and failure to restore power supply promptly during outages. The KSEB management has rubbished the charge that lapses on the part of KSEB staff are causing the outages.
Under the automatic demand management system (ADMS), which is in place to ensure grid security, supply automatically shuts off if the drawal exceeds a certain limit. ADMS is mandated by the Indian Electricity Grid Code. According to the KSEB, there were several instances across the State the other day when overloaded 11 kV feeders shut down. In such cases, the feeders cannot be charged for five minutes.
If consumption, particularly during the evening hours, is not brought under control, this situation could repeat in the coming days, the KSEB has warned. It urged consumers to use air conditioners judiciously, by maintaining the temperature above 25 degree Celsius.
The KSEB has requested consumers not to see its staff as adversaries since the problem is more “technical” in nature. Increasing instances of the public taking their protest to the section offices and quarrelling with the staff would only affect the latter’s morale, it said.
