After March, a tough April for power sector

The sweltering summer heat combined with the Lok Sabha election season appears to have given the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) a really hard time this April.

Barring three days, the per-day electricity consumption has so far stood above 100 million units (mu) through this month.

Peak demand

The KSEB recorded alltime high peak demand (evening hours) on both Thursday – the eve of the elections – and on Friday (the poll day), show ošcial data for the period till April

26. The peak demand was recorded at 5,559 megawatts (MW) – an all-time high – on Thursday. But it was crossed on Friday when the evening demand peaked at 5,608 MW, show data released by the State Load Despatch Centre.

Continuing a trend which started in March, the per-day consumption stood above 100 mu on 23 days in April, straining KSEB resources and forcing the utility to bank heavily on power purchases to meet the demand.

Consumption fell below 100 mu only on April 13, April 14 and April 21. The last two days were Sundays when consumption tends to dip by 5 to 7 mu.

The day’s consumption on April 9 was also the highest for the State to date: 111.79 mu.

What summer rainfall Kerala received in April failed to replenish storage in the hydel reservoirs managed by the KSEB. Total storage in the dams is down to 36%, equivalent to approximately 1,480 mu. It dipped from 46% on April

1. This summer, Kerala has so far recorded a ‘large deficiency’ in summer rainfall during March 1-April 26, according to the India Meteorological Department. This denotes a shortfall in excess of 60% from the normal rainfall that can be expected for the period.