Kerala gets power paucity shock as coal crisis looms

With the summer peaking, electricity use has shot up in the state

KOCHI: Kerala  is struggling to meet the rising power demand during peak hours. The state depends on the national grid for 65 per cent of its power requirement and, if the coal shortage at thermal power plants in the country remains unresolved, the state could be headed for a crisis.

Currently, Kerala faces a shortage of 125 MW during peak hours, and the KSEB is managing short supply with short-term purchases that cost way more than regular rates. Short-time purchase rate rises with demand and ranges from `8 to `16 per unit (based on bidding), while the regular rate is about `2 per unit. The highest rate quoted by KSEB in recent days is `12 per unit (April 21).

With the summer peaking, power consumption in the state has soared. Kerala consumed 89.63 million units (MU) of power on April 21 — around 15 MU above the average daily consumption. The state generates only 35 per cent of its power requirement. As internal generation stood at 30.54 MU on Thursday, the KSEB purchased 59.09 MU from the national grid.

Kerala has purchase agreements with major thermal power plants such as Neyveli, Ramagundam, Talcher, Simhadri, Vallur, Balco, Kudgi Jhabua, and Jindal Power Ltd. There has been a sharp drop in the buffer stock of coal at these power plants, and a delay in the scheduled delivery of coal could mean crisis.

The import price of coal has spiralled due to the Russia-Ukraine war. Besides the high price, the shortage of railway rakes for transportation of coal has also reportedly impacted stocks at power plants. “The stocks of these plants will last only for four to five days,” said KSEB system operations chief engineer S R Anand. “The short supply has led to a shortage of 125 MW during peak hours, and we are managing with short-term purchases.”

He added that the state was also facing “frequency fluctuations”, or variations in supply. “Kerala’s power frequency was stable at 49.99Hz in the 2000 period, but now we are facing variations due to the renewable energy element,” Anand explained. “The are high fluctuations in solar power output. The solar power variation [based on weather conditions] in the national grid will be in the range of 10,000 MW at one instance. Though renewable power generation is negligible in Kerala, we have not made frequency control mechanism mandatory.”