The Hindu : Kerala News : Storage position at Sabarigiri grim

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 10, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Storage position at Sabarigiri grim

Radhakrishnan Kuttoor

Second largest hydroelectric station has water to generate power for just eight days

ALARMING situation: The Kakki reservoir of the Sabarigiri hydroelectric project at Moozhiyar presents a grim picture with its poor storage level.

PATHANAMTHITTA: The storage position in the three reservoirs of the 300-MW Sabarigiri hydroelectric project, the second largest hydel power station in the State, presents a grim picture with poor inflow from the catchment areas despite the onset of monsoon.

The storage in the three reservoirs at Kochu Pampa, Anathode and Kakki as on Wednesday was 16.75 mcm (million cubic metre), which is enough to generate (energy equivalent) only 27.1 million units (MU) of electricity. The reservoirs now have only 3.5 per cent of the total storage capacity of 477.6 mcm, according to Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) sources at Moozhiyar.

The 300-MW Moozhiyar power station of the Sabarigiri hydroelectric project has six generators of 50 MW capacity each. But two of them are under repair. The remaining four could generate 4.8 MU of power a day.

The power generation at Moozhiyar on Wednesday was 3.63 MU. The KSEB has been operating only three generators for the past three weeks. Only two of them were operated on Wednesday owing to the grim storage position in the reservoir. The present storage in the Sabarigiri reservoirs with an energy equivalent of 27.1 MU will be sufficient for generating power for just eight days. Any hitch at Sabarigiri will affect the functioning of the 50-MW Kakkad hydroelectric station and the mini-hydel project at Maniyar.

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