The higher demand was met mostly by overworking the state’s hydel stations
Though power consumption had shot up to pre-monsoon levels, to over 60 million units a day, from September 10, the higher demand was met mostly by overworking the state's hydel stations. Hydel generation, which hovered between 22-24 MU was abruptly
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After holding off for nearly a month, KSEB Limited has finally decided to purchase costly power from naphtha and diesel stations to meet the state's increasing power consumption.
The sudden increase in purchase cost will affect the company’s bottom line and fears have emerged of another tariff revision. Power minister Aryadan Mohammad had last week hinted that a tariff revision was inevitable.
Though power consumption had shot up to pre-monsoon levels, to over 60 million units a day, from September 10, the higher demand was met mostly by overworking the state’s hydel stations. Hydel generation, which hovered between 22-24 MU was abruptly scaled up to 30 MU. Now, realizing that the strategy of aggressive hydel generation could backfire, KSEB Limited has gone for costly purchases.
From the last week of September, generation in hydel stations began to outstrip inflow into reservoirs. “When generation gets the better of water inflow, the storage level in dams fall. If the situation continues our dams will cease to hold sufficient water to meet the demand during the dry season,” a top KSEB official said. On October 7, the dams in the state together generated 26 MU while the inflow into the reservoirs was only 20 MU. “An unsustainable equation,” the official said.
Costly purchase, therefore, looked the better option. Till October 2, the company was purchasing only 0.30 MU from Kozhikode Diesel Plant at Rs 11.33 per unit. From October 6, KSEB Limited has started purchasing four million units from costly stations: 3.60 MU at Rs 12.8 per unit from the Kayamkulam NTPC plant and 0.30 MU from the Kozhikode plant at Rs 11.33 per unit. To make matters worse, open market prices of power, which stood between Rs 5 and 6 per unit, has swelled to Rs 8 per unit.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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