THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The arrival of monsoon has dramatically reduced power consumption in the state. From an average of 74 million units a day this month, consumption fell to 64 MU overnight on May 29, on the eve of the onset of southwest monsoon. KSEB Limited, sensing an opportunity, has drawn down its hydel generation to nearly 5 million units; two weeks ago it was nearly 20 MU. KSEBL has gone for a drastic reduction in daily hydel generation because power management protocol demands that the reservoirs in the state should have enough water, called reserve stock, to generate 550 MU on June 1.
Severe drought in the last couple of months, and excess generation to meet the summer demand, had brought about an alarming depletion in water level, which had at one point dipped to nearly 25 per cent of the total capacity. KSEBL had no choice, but to crank up generation as the intense heat wave across the country had jacked up power prices in the open market. “KSEBL had to up hydel generation or it would have been forced to purchase costly power from outside badly hurting its already strapped fina-nces,” a top KSEBL official said. Just a week ago, reservoirs had water to generate only 480 MU.
“If the monsoon gathers strength in the coming days, we can improve the reserve stock to adequate levels,” a top KSEBL official said. As the generation dropped to 5 MU, the inflow improved to 4.5 MU, almost good enough to replenish the water utilized for power generation. Last year, when the monsoon was not just weak, but also arrived late, the hydel generation during the corresponding period was nearly 25 MU. The water level in reservoirs, too, has gradually improved to nearly 40 per cent.
