The Hindu Business Line : Power cut inflicts burden of Rs 63 cr on FACT

Kochi, Sept. 9 Power cuts, coupled with thermal surcharge of Re 0.50 for a unit imposed by the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) this year on industries, have pushed the extra high tension (EHT) and high tension consumer industries in the State into a serious crisis. Among them, one of the worst hit is the public sector Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd (FACT) at Udhyogamandal, which is already struggling for survival.

The KSEB decision has placed an additional burden of Rs 63 crore a year on FACT. Following failure of the southwest monsoon this year, the KSEB had imposed a 25 per cent power cut and the thermal surcharge effective July 25 and August 20, respectively.

Additional problem

It has come at a time when FACT is finding it difficult to run its units at full capacity for want of raw materials and high cost, which has restricted its imports. The domestic supplier of phosphoric acid, a Tuticorin-based company, has not agreed to increase volume of supply, besides being reluctant to enter into a long-term supply contract because of the upward trend in prices, a senior official told Business Line.

“However, negotiations are still on and we hope to reach some agreement,” he said.

FACT, a major EHT consumer of KSEB, “is drawing power at 110 kV and consuming about 13.7 million units a month”. “Our total contracted maximum demand with KSEB is 30 MVA (16 MVA for our Udyogamandal unit and 14 MVA for our Ambalamedu unit),” the company sources said.

According to FACT, there is an anomaly in quota of power fixed by KSEB, which has fixed the company’s quota as 6,510 MWh and that “works out to an effective power supply restriction of 45 per cent against the cut of 25 per cent envisaged by the board. This is because power quota is calculated on the basis of the actual power consumption of 2007-08.”

Insufficient energy

During the last fiscal, FACT did not have normal production due to severe financial constraints and hence its consumption was much less and the quota was fixed accordingly under instructions from the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, the sources said.

The quota allotted now is much below the requirement of the company and, as a result, it has been forced to stop production in many plants. “Our normal requirement of energy for running all plants comes to 11,833 MWh and as against this, the allotted quota of 6,510 MWh is not at all sufficient for maintaining our operations,” said they said.

The methodology followed by KSEB this time for finding out the qualifying months for computation of quota, especially for those who do not have steady consumption through the entire period, defies logic, sources alleged.

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