Increasing demand for power without a corresponding growth in generation is likely to perpetuate the grim scenario prevailing in the power sector in the State.

The current storage levels in the reservoirs are at the 10-year average level, senior KSEB sources said. The annual requirement two years ago used to be between 17,400–17,500 million units, while it is over 20,000 million units now. Even full reservoir capacity is not enough to meet the growing demand, they said.

Supply from the Central grid has been reduced to around 23 million units daily as against over 25 million units following shutdown of three units in Neyveli power plant.

Koodankulam snag

Meanwhile, a snag at the Koodamkulam plant has stopped the supply of 130 MW from there. The plant is expected to resume supply only in January, they said.

“We have an agreement to purchase 300 MW of power (10 million units daily) from Karnataka but we are not in a position to lift it for want of transmission lines,” an official said.

Laying of transmission lines was stopped because of objection from farmers in the Coorg region.

Absence of transmission corridor has also become a major hurdle, the sources said. The inter-State lines to evacuate power from other States are needed at the peak demand period. The peak demand is about 3,000 MW, but the capacity of inter-State feeder lines is only 1,000 MW, they added.

Pact flouted

Violation of purchase agreement by a private supplier in Chhattisgarh has also deprived the State of 100 MW of power. The issue is still with the CERC, they said.

According to the officials, there is a discrepancy of 1.5 million units daily.

The current daily demand of 60 millions units is met by generating 24 mus from the hydel projects ; 23 mus from the central grid, purchase of 3.7 mus from the NTPC Kayamkulam thermal plat at around Rs13 a unit; 2.5 mus from north India (temporary share) and purchase of some share from the open market.

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