The Hindu Business Line : Monsoon to fire up hydel power stations in Kerala

THE late arrival of the southwest monsoon this year has somewhat reduced the water storage level in the reservoirs of the major hydroelectric projects in the State compared to the inflow last year and it is expected to improve as the monsoon has already set in.

With the storage levels on Tuesday morning in all the major reservoirs, 357.26 million units (MUs) of electricity could be generated.

The water storage in the small reservoirs downstream has not been taken into account, a senior Kerala State Electricity Board source told Business Line. Though there had been rains in the project area during the past few days, it would reflect in the inflow in couple of days. With the inflow on Monday, 4 MUs could be generated, he said.

Last year on this day, the water level was on the higher side, enough to generate 730 MUs. He said the increase in water storage then was because of the monsoon, which had set in early May 2004.

Following the onset of monsoon, the daily power consumption had dropped to an average 33 MUs from 38 MUs last week. The "all-time high consumption was on May 25 with 41.11 MUs," he said.

The current demand of 33 MUs is met by 15 MUs generated by the hydel projects and 18.4 MUs drawn from the central grid. However, to meet the peak hour demand, the diesel power generating plants of the KSEB are also operated, he said.

According to him, the cost of power drawn from the central grid would come to around Rs 2 a unit while that of the hydel power generated in the State around Re 1 a unit.

This year also the board is planning to meet the power requirement without drawing it from the thermal stations of NTPC at Kayamkulam and BSES near here, he said.

Kerala, he claimed, could manage its power system without the support of Kayamkulam thermal station. He said the power consumption in the State had not grown recently as expected earlier, mainly due to the stagnation in industrial consumption.

The load pattern of Kerala power system is such that the maximum load on the system occurs during evening hours, i.e. between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., which comes to be around 2350 MW during acute summer. The minimum load occurs during late night hours i.e., between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., which comes to be around 1000 MW during summer.

He said the hydel stations could generate around 1,200 MW throughout the year.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page