Certain areas in Malabar region will experience power supply problems for a couple of days due to some fault in a 220-kV transmission line bringing power from Karnataka to that side of Kerala.
The engineers concerned in Karnataka are attending to the fault and this power supply channel is expected to open again within two days, Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) chairman T.M. Manoharan told The Hindu on Wednesday.
The issue of power supply inconsistency in Malabar region came up in the Assembly earlier in the day. Electricity Minister Aryadan Mohammed said the key issue was there was no power generation centre in northern Kerala. (The proposal for setting up a coal-based power plant at Cheemeni in Kasaragod district is stalled due to local protests). The Minister assured the House that steps were on in the KSEB to manage the present crisis.
The KSEB chairman, when contacted, said such a problem could have been avoided had there been a stronger power transmission line from Karnataka to northern Kerala to bring part of the quota of power from the Central grid to the State. The construction of a 400-kV transmission line from Kolar in Karnataka to Azheekode in Kerala has encountered difficulties recently due to certain issues in the Bandipur area. “We have certain line constraints,” he said.
The areas that are being affected by the fault in the existing 220-kV line fall in the districts of Kasaragod, Kannur, and Wayanad.
Mr. Manoharan said the KSEB was also confronting a shortage in the supply of electricity from the Central grid because of problems in the coal mines of Andhra Pradesh. On the one side, the Ramagundam power plant is working below its generation capacity. This reduces the flow of power from there to Kerala. On the other side, there is severe shortage of power in Andhra Pradesh now and that State is asking for power even from Kerala.
