Thiruvananthapuram: Thanks to the copious rains, the daily inflow into the state's reservoirs is far outstripping the power generated from the hydel stations. The widening gap means that more water is getting stored in our reservoirs, gradually accumulating power insurance points of sorts for the state during the dry season.
On September 6, while the inflow into the reservoirs was 50 million units the hydel generation was 21 MU, relatively high during the rains. “Normally, as part of our conservation strategy, we cut back on hydel generation during the rains. The daily generation during the rainy season will be in the range of 17-18 MU. But now that the rains have been consistently heavy, we have decided to step up hydel production,” a top KSEB source said. In fact, during the first week of September, the generation was close to 30 MU. The advantage of generating more hydel power is that KSEB Limited can reduce its dependence on costly diesel sources. Now, it purchases less than one million units from costly sources.
The year’s reservoir position looks even richer than last fiscal when again there was an overabundance of southwest monsoon. On September 6 last, for instance, while the generation was 28 MU, the inflow was only 26 MU. The inflow-generation gap during the first week of September also bests the best average inflow-generation gap (43 MU – 23 MU) recorded in 2007.
The state of the Idukki reservoir best captures the health of our state reservoirs. Last year on September 5, a time when the state enjoyed one of the best monsoon in history, the water level in the reservoir was 730 feet. But on September 5 this year, though the rains were very weak in the initial stages, the water level has climbed to 722 feet.
