The Hindu Business Line : Kerala Minister warns of power cut

The State will be thrown back to a regime of load-shedding and power-cut if the domestic generation capacity is not augmented on a war-footing, according to Mr A.K. Balan, Minister for Electricity.

He said here on Friday that the daily consumption had gone up from 35 million units to 39 million units, while the peak load demand had increased from 2,300 megawatt to 2,550 megawatt. The situation was such that possibilities of generating an additional 2,000 MW had to be explored within the next 10 years. The Minister noted that the power requirement would go up further in the summer and urgent measures to raise the generation capacity had to be taken if load-shedding and power cut were to be avoided.

It was unfortunate that only 70 MW additional capacity could be created over the last five years and if the private sector generation was also taken into account, the total capacity added was 101 MW during the period. But to achieve the developmental targets envisaged for the Eleventh Plan, a minimum of 1,800 MW additional capacity had to be put in place, the Minister said.

Currently, there were 36 ongoing projects with the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) and they would add 700 MW to the State's installed capacity during the Plan period if implemented in a time-bound manner. In the first year, the target was to generate 235 MW and this would go up to 400 MW if Athirapilly project could also be implemented during the year.

Besides, there was potential for generating another 400 MW from 24 projects, he said.

He observed that legally the survival of the board was in question in the light of the Electricity Act, 2003, enacted by the Centre. But all in the country were bound to implement the central laws and in the given situation the State Government was trying to retain the board in the public sector, he added.

The Minister dubbed as baseless the concerns expressed in certain quarters that the aesthetics of the waterfalls would be lost if the Athirapilly project was implemented. There was need to spread awareness among the public on the matter, he said.

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