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G.K. Nair

KOCHI, Feb. 17

BSES Kerala Power Ltd.(BKPL) which had resumed operations after a year-long hiatus in late December 2002, under a working arrangement with the Kerala Government has yet to receive Rs 230 crore and a settlement on this issue is still pending, as the State Government has yet to take up the matter with the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

It was agreed upon that as per this arrangement all outstanding bills would be referred to the CEA by the KSEB before settlement. But, so far it does not seem to have been referred, Mr S.M.C. Pillai, Managing Director, BKPL, told Business Line on Monday. The plant could generate 1,100 million units per annum and that was enough to cater the requirement of 80 lakh domestic consumers in the State, he said.

As the demand for power has gone up following reduction in generation at the State's hydel projects, the plant has been operating at almost full capacity. It could generate 3.76 million units a day and at present the average generation stood at an average of above three million units daily, he said. At this rate the Government has to pay the company a fixed charge of Rs 10 crore per month and a variable charge of Rs 3.60-Rs 3.70 per unit of power consumeddepending upon the fuel cost.

He said that the price of naphtha, which is the fuel, had gone up steeply to Rs 15,500 to Rs 16,000 per tonne net of excise duty. "When the plant was started it was available at Rs 5,000 a tonne," Mr Pillai pointed out. And yet, compared to the price of NTPC's Kayamkulam thermal plant the BKPL power is cheaper by Rs 0.30 per unit , he said. BKPL is a joint venture between BSES and the Kerala government.

The power crisis in the State has deepened in recent months due to deficient monsoons leading to the drying up of the reservoirs of the major hydro-electric projects on the one hand and the closing down partially or fully the thermal/diesel power projects. Power generation from the hydel projects has been reduced to below 10 million units per day while the KSEB's diesel power plants are being run at even less than half of its capacity.

For the first time in its history the water level at the major Idukki dam fell to the lowest level ever. It dropped by 37 feet from that of February 2002 and with the water available now power generation would be possible only for 30 days. The situation has compelled the State to draw more power from the central grid and other sources just to meet the requirement after enforcing a 30-minute cyclical power cut at the peak hours in the evening.

Under an arrangement between BSES, NTPC, KSEB and the Power Ministry, 180 MW power generated by Kayamkulam thermal plant would be sold to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and based on this power will be evacuated from the BSES plant. This would bring down the liability of the KSEB by around Rs 300 crore per annum.

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