THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The water level in state’s reservoirs remains dangerously low two weeks into the southwest monsoon. It is still only 12 per cent, the level had plummeted to all-time low of 10 per cent in the middle of May. To somehow retrieve the situation, KSEB Limited had stepped down hydel generation to record lows then. And now, even in the midst of a seemingly healthy monsoon, it continues to do so. On June 11, the generation was just 4.6 million units. It was below 10 MU for nearly a month.
It has not helped that southwest monsoon has skirted Idukki district, which hosts the state’s largest dam, the 780-MW Moolamattam Power House. At the moment, the Idukki dam has water to generate only 234 MU; last year same time its reservoir had water to generate 437 MU. IMD figures show that the monsoon rain has been deficient by 50 per cent. However, for the majority of districts, there has been excess rainfall. Strangely, the water level in the reservoirs shows no sign of improving even though the inflow far exceeds the outgo or hydel generation. On June 11, for instance, if the hydel generation was 4.58 million units, the inflow was an encouraging 12 MU.
“But this is not enough,” said Mr Brijlal V., KSEBL’s generation chief engineer in charge of Moolamattam. “We need consistent rains for the reservoir level to go up. This time, strangely, the monsoon has fallen only in short bursts, it has not kept up the momentum like it usually does,” Mr Brijlal said. In a normal monsoon year, the reservoir level goes up by 10 per cent in a day. This year, even two weeks after the monsoon, the increase has been just one percent. If top KSEBL officials have still not pressed the panic button, it is the considerable reduction in daily demand. “This has allowed us to keep hydel generation at the lowest possible level and still manage to meet our daily demand with only negligible purchases from costly sources. But if things proceed in this fashion, we could be pushed into a crisis,” Mr Brijlal said.
