THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite a surge in rains during October, daily power consumption in the state continues to hover at the summer levels of 63 million units, higher than same time last year.
However, contrary to logic, rising consumption will not have any significant impact on the bottom line of a cash-strapped KSEB Limited.
The anomalous situation where higher consumption has not laid a heavier financial burden has been attributed to KSEBL’s smart power sourcing policy.
Nearly 70 percent of its daily requirement is sourced from cost-effective central generating stations where the average variable cost per unit is less than Rs 3.
Last year same time, only 50 percent or less of the state’s requirements were secured from central power stations.
“This time, KSEBL had thoroughly planned its power purchases,” a top KSEB source said.
The high evacuation from central stations also means that KSEBL’s dependence on costly naphtha and diesel stations has been limited to a bare minimum.
Last year, KSEBL had managed to reduce its power off-take from costly stations to 1.5 million units from over 4 million units. This year it has come down to a negligible 0.3 MU.
Even this is purchased at a lower cost as the international price of crude has gone down considerably this year.
What’s more, hydel generation too has been kept at a moderate level in these times of rising consumption.
At the moment, only 18 MU are generated from the state’s hydel stations. Last year, when consumption was not as high, nearly 25 MU were extracted from hydel stations.
