Power consumption shoots up even before summer

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Officially, it’s not summer yet. But the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) has already begun sweating profusely. Water levels in the reservoirs are relatively low and, since February 5, there has been only one day when daily power consumption in the state dipped below the 55 million unit (MU) mark. If February is any indication, KSEB’s predictions for the 2012 summer and the 2012-2013 fiscal will easily hit bull’s eye, KSEB officials say.Between February 5 and February 19, there were five days when consumption broke the 57 MU mark. The record, thus far, this month was set on February 18, when Kerala gulped down 57.87 MU."Last Friday consumption should have shot up to 58.3 MU, which would have been a record for the state. But restrictions were imposed and consumption was arrested at 57.5 MU,’’ said KSEB member (generation and transmission) Mohammedali Rawther.  To know how consumption levels have changed in a year, a comparison with February 2011 will suffice.Daily consumption in February 2011 had hovered about a relatively low 50 MU mark. Water level in the Idukki reservoir stands at 52 percent of total capacity. (Last year this time it was 61 percent.) Moozhiyar (Sabarigiri Hydel Project) is 64 percent full.Hydel generation, especially from Idukki, will be brought down a few notches from Tuesday when KSEB begins to source 150 MW from NTPC’s Rajiv Gandhi Combined Cycle Power Project, Kayamkulam. The state is also receiving more or less the full complement of its share of electricity from the Centre at present.Projections made as part of the power utility’s Aggregate Revenue Requirement for 2012-2013 say that average daily consumption in the state would be 58.10 MU in March 2012 and 55.66 MU in April. According to KSEB, power consumption is expected to shoot up by 7.1 percent during 2012-2013 when the average daily consumption will be around 55.42 MU. It was pegged at 51.73 MU for 2011-2012.If consumption does not spin out of control, Kerala should be able to squeeze through this summer without loadsheddings and power cuts upto May, after which everything will depend on the south-west monsoon, according to KSEB officials.