Kerala - Kollam   

Power shortage grips State

KOLLAM: An acute power shortage gripped the State on Wednesday.

Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) sources told The Hindu that austerity measures in distribution may become inevitable. The KSEB has issued a statement asking consumers to cut down on consumption.

The immediate cause for the crisis is the inability of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) to meet its agreements with the KSEB. Following a blast in the Moozhiyar power station on May 16, the KSEB had entered into an agreement with the PSEB for supply of 100 MW and another agreement for swapping 100 MW to 200 MW.

The main source of the PSEB to meet Kerala’s requirement is the 1,500-MW Jhakri hydropower project in Kinnaur district in Himachal Pradesh. Power generation from the plant has remained suspended since June 12 following heavy accumulation of silt in the Sutlej river. Power generation will resume there only when the silt settles down to permissible levels. The sources said the draw from the PSEB was nil on Wednesday.

This development has come in the way of the KSEB overdrawing power from the Southern Grid. For drawing power from the grid, the minimum power frequency point should be 49. But on Wednesday it dropped to 48.5.

Also, there was a drop in generation at the Talcher thermal power station in Orissa on Wednesday. Following this, supply from the Central pool dropped to 650 MW from the regular 900-plus MW. In view of the situation, the KSEB started operating the Kayamkulam NTPC power station to full capacity of Wednesday, the sources said.

It is not known when the crisis would ease on the power front, the sources added.

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