KSEB bid for ‘tariff stab’ threatens consumers

In fact, on a closer look, the power situation looks distinctly better this year as the KSEB is not forced to overwork its hydel stations. Last year, in spite of the rains, the KSEB had to step up hydel generation. The KSEB Limited’s plan, which it will soon submit before the Electricity Regulatory Commission, is to make consumers, both domestic and industrial, to pay considerably more if they fail to reduce consumption by least 15 percent of their existing consumption.

“This time, consumers have managed to keep their utilisation levels at last year’s level even without power curbs. Consumption has not shown a surge to deserve punitive tariffs,” said Purushothaman Lal, a consumer activist. Consumption still hovers around 58 million units daily, the same or even slightly lower than last year. The KSEB’s argument is that it is now being forced to purchase more than four million units costly power from diesel and naphtha stations at nearly Rs 12 per unit.

“It is true that virtually no purchases were made from costly stations last year during this period. But then hydel stations were dangerously overworked,” Purushothaman said. If nearly 30 million units were generated from the state’s hydel stations last year, this year it is just over 20 million units. This overwork had even resulted in some of the dam machinery becoming dysfunctional.

“It has to be conceded that a good northeast rain and a consumption that has not really gone out of control will help the KSEB to conserve enough water in its reservoirs to meet the heavy demands of the summer,” a top KSEB official said.