The Hindu Business Line : Kerala switches off thermal plants

THE Kerala State Electricity Board, in a bid to reduce electricity cost, has started drawing heavily on low-cost power from the central grid and switched off all its thermal stations after May 1, besides stopping taking power from private sector power companies such as BSES Kerala Power Ltd.

Senior KSEB sources told Business Line that after May 1, water levels in the reservoirs of all hydel projects had gone up following incessant summer showers, to generate an additional 50 million units (MUs).

Besides, power consumption had also dropped to around 30 MUs per day from 37 MUs. In fact, showers in the entire southern peninsula had also led to a load crash in the region resulting in increased availability of power from the central grid.

Given this situation, the Board had decided to stop drawing high cost power from the thermal plants including its own diesel power generating plants at Brahmapuram (Kochi), Kozhikode and Kasargod, the sources said.

However, because of the contractual obligation it is drawing 50 per cent of the power generated by NTPC power plant at Kayamkulam.

The hydel projects generate 10 MUs per day now, while about 2 MUs are taken from the Kayamkulam plant.

The additional requirement of around 20 MUs is drawn from the central pool. "Our share per day is 15 MUs, thus we are overdrawing around 5 million units." The cost of central power comes to Rs 1.50 per unit, they pointed out.

The hydel projects currently have water storage to generate around 805 MUs, they said. "We are, thus, at a comfortable position now. We have been operating the hydel stations with conservative water management," they said.

Power drawn from KSEB thermal stations was three MUs, BSES Kerala Power Ltd around 2.5 MUs and NTPC's Kayamkulam plant three MUs daily.

Following the switching off of all thermal plants, power drawn at present from within the State is around two MUs from the Kayamkulam plant and 10 MUs from the hydel projects.

The variable cost alone per unit of electricity supplied by the Kayamkulam plant would come to about Rs 3.15, they said. According to the sources, "Power from the central pool is the cheapest Kerala is getting."

They said that the existing hydel projects in the State were several decades old and requires modernisation. Once that is completed, efficiency of these plants could be enhanced. Besides, they added, with conservative water management the projects could be operated efficiently throughout the year.

According to them, taking into account the present actual power demand the reserve for maintenance, spinning and breakdown, the installed generating capacity of the State is short by at least 450 MW. "To bridge this gap in installed generating capacity huge investment is required," he added.

The existing thermal plants in the State including NTPC's 350 MW Kayamkulam unit are operating on high cost naphtha and as a result, the generation cost in these plants was said to be over Rs 3.5 per unit.

If plants using naphtha are switched over to LNG, power could be made available at affordable cost, an energy expert pointed out.