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Weak monsoon in Kerala a cause for concern

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Seventeen days after the monsoon had set in over Kerala, almost right on schedule on May 31, the State is still waiting for the kind of rains that will drench its fields for the seasonal crops and fill its reservoirs to drive its power generating stations.

The State experienced ‘widespread rain’ during this period. The weather office uses the term ‘widespread’ when more than 75 per cent of the territory is involved. But the rainfall has not been strong, especially in the southern districts where all the major hydro-electric stations are located. It has been 40 per cent deficient so far, according to the Thiruvananthapuram director of India Meteorological Department M.D. Ramachandran.

The big concern is power generation. All reservoirs put together, the water storage as on Tuesday is sufficient to generate only 666.83 million units of power. Nearly half the quantity of water now in the reservoirs is what is called ‘dead storage,’ or storage that could not be utilised to drive the generators. Daily power consumption in the State is in the range of 42 million units now. The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) has been restricting the generation of hydro-electric power to the level of between 10 and 11 million units during the past few days, bringing it down from the usual level of between 16 and 17 million units, for want of any reassuring signs from the monsoon. The Idukki reservoir, which accounts for nearly 65 per cent of the total storage capacity of the hydro-electric reservoirs in the State, is 89 per cent empty at the moment. Edamalayar is 84.59 per cent empty and Pampa-Kakki 70.27 per cent empty.

The KSEB is frantically knocking at the doors of the power utilities in other States, even in faraway Punjab, for more thermal power.

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