Thiruvananthapuram: The power crisis in Kerala has triggered heated political debates and even social media campaigns and counter campaigns  even as the real issues and solutions get less attention. The drop in rain…

Thiruvananthapuram: The power crisis in Kerala has triggered heated political debates and even social media campaigns and counter campaigns  even as the real issues and solutions get less attention. The drop in rain falls has caused a double whammy for Keralam both on the generation and consumption as the state’s own power generation is depended mostly on hydel power projects and the increasing mercury level is leading to steep increase in power consumption. The increasing number of e-vehicles as well as the increase in the use of electric gadgets also aggravates the power crisis. The peak demand of the state increased from 4,000 MW to 5,200 MW forcing the state to impose daily power cuts. The root cause for the frequent power crisis in the state is the lack of increase in power generation in accordance with the increasing demand. The state’s internal power generation still remains at around 25 percent to 40 percent of the state’s power requirement. Soaring heat, inadequate rains plunge Kerala into acute crisis: State imposes up to one hour power cuts Environmental concerns and related protests towards setting up new hydel power projects have been often cited by the political leaderships for this grim situation. Though the state is ahead in roof top solar power generation under the PM Suryghar Yojana with installed capacity of over 2500 MW, the state couldn’t tap the benefit to address the peak hour demand owing to lack of battery energy storage system.  Despite these facts, the political debates in the state are centered around the cancellation of a long term power purchase agreement initiated by the Oommen Chandy led Congress government.  The CPM, which is now in the opposition, is blaming the hardly four month old Congress government led by V D Satheesan for lapses in advance planning to face the power crisis. The Congress on the other hand tries to put the blame on the previous CPM government for cancelling  the long term power agreement signed by the Oommen Chandy government for purchasing 465 MW at Rs 4.29 per unit for 25 years citing procedural violations. CPM is trying to wash their hands of  the responsibility over cancelling the agreement citing that it was done by the electricity regulatory commission. As Kerala reels under power crisis, Thrissur village’s rooftop solar model offers hopeExperts point out that both the CPM and Congress governments that ruled Kerala over the years failed in augmenting the power generations in anticipating the increasing demand. Environmental expert V Subashchandrabose points out the key reason for Kerala’s power crisis was that the state depends on major hydel power projects only. The state should give focus on implementing more small hydel projects as well as solar power storage facilities. Moreover, the public should be made more aware of the need to save power. State electricity minister Sunny Joseph said on Tuesday that the state could not anticipate when the ongoing power crisis would be over as it depends on adequate power availability from other states. A move by the state to purchase power at a higher price of Rs. 30 per unit from NTPC has been put on hold as the additional fiscal burden would eventually fall on the consumer. Instead, fresh tenders for power purchase are being floated.

Source: Deccan Herald