Absence of private players hits prospects.
Thiruvananthapuram: Too much dependence on hydroelectric projects, and virtually no effort to generate power from renewable sources like wind or encourage private generation, has made Kerala one of the worst performing states in terms of power generation. The absence of private producers seems to have made a difference in states that have enhanced generation.
This was revealed in an internal assessment done by KSEB Limited on power utilities in the country. In the last nine years, the state could manage only a minuscule seven percent increase in installed capacity; from 2313.7 MW in 2007 the installed capacity inched up to just 2486.7 MW in 2015. Neighbouring states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have improved installed capacity by 55 and 79 percent respectively. Even West Bengal has raised its capacity by 65 percent. As for Gujarat, the improvement was a whopping 178 percent in seven years.
The private sector has a major role to play in all the states that have augmented their capacity by a considerable degree. Even in a Left-dominant West Bengal, the installed capacity of the private sector swelled from 1081.7 MW in 2007 to 1369.6 MW in 2015, a 27 percent rise. In Tamil Nadu, private installed capacity rose by 93 percent, from 4488.3 MW in 2007 to 8653.8 MW in 2015. In Karnataka, the private sector grew by 230 percent, from 1445.3 MW to 4776.9 MW in nine years. In Gujarat, perhaps the only state that runs a profitable power utility, the growth of the private sector has been a stupendous 546 percent in nine years; from 2459.2 MW to 15895.3 MW.
However, in Kerala the private sector seems to have shut shop. Though the installed capacity is stagnant at 195 MW for nearly a decade, the gross generation has fallen from 216.9 million units to a mere 48.78 MU. Gujarat and Karnataka have also increased the share of renewables like wind and solar in their power mix by 100-200 percent.
