The Hindu Business Line : Rains inflate KSEB kitty

THE Kerala State Electricity Board is to make a saving of an estimated Rs 40-45 crore a month during May, June and July following stoppage of drawing high-cost power from the thermal plants in view of the good rains in catchment areas, senior Board officials said.

They told Business Line that incessant rains in recent weeks had raised the water level in the reservoirs of the hydel projects. With the water available now in the reservoirs, about 760 million units could be generated, they said. If the rains continued throughout the season, the Board may not have to draw power from the high-cost thermal plants at all.

"We are trying to manage without it", they said. However, it would depend on the rains in June and July, they added.

The current daily demand is 31 million units and to meet this demand, 15.5 million units are drawn from the central pool and the balance from the hydel projects here.

The officials said that the Board was not drawing power from the NTPC's Kayamkulam thermal plant from May 16 as the plant had been shut down for maintenance. The Board had also stopped drawing power from the BSES Kerala Power Ltd here while its own diesel power generating units have been shut down due to high cost of generation.

Power consumption has also dropped to around 31 MUs a day from 37 MUs due to the rains. In fact, the 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, they said.

Power drawn from KSEB diesel power generating units was 3 MUs, BSES Kerala Power around 2.5 MUs and NTPC's Kayamkulam plant 3 MUs daily. Following the shutdown of all thermal plants, power drawn at present from within the State is 16 MUs from the hydel projects.

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