Minister promises additional power from Centre

 Thursday, March 29, 2012: Union Minister of State for Power KC Venugopal said that the Centre would allot 50 MW more power to Kerala from Sunday onwards taking into account the power shortage that is prevailing in the state.
He added that additional power to Kerala will be allotted from the other states’ quota. With additional quota of power, the state would get a total of 416 MW from the centre. Load shedding will be imposed in the state from Monday.
The Electricity Board had reiterated that the state would move towards acute power crisis if Centre did not allocate additional power.
The state’s daily consumption of power for the last week was 60 million units. Tuesday’s power consumption was 63 million units per day. And the state generates only one third of this. Inspite of the central allocation, the state will still be deprived of 20 million units of power daily. Presently, the state is overcoming the crisis buying power from Kayamkulam power station at Rs 11 per unit.
The water level in Idukki is decreasing. The Electricity Board is depending on the Kayamkulam power plant apart from the 20 million units of power from the hydroelectric plants and 25 million units from the central pool. There are limitations in drawing power from outside too.