Thiruvananthapuram: The power crisis in the state is likely to ease a bit in the coming days as KSEB has managed to source an additional 150MW from central generating stations. The board will start drawing the power from Tuesday and expects the shortage to ease nationally in the days ahead.At the same time, the state govt is learnt to have advised the board to wait and watch before entering into a power purchase agreement with NTPC at the historically high rate of Rs 30 per unit. According to sources, govt had given an in-principle go-ahead to KSEB to purchase high-cost power, if available, to tide over the shortage. KSEB then informed govt that power remained scarce and NTPC had agreed to provide it at Rs 30 per unit. Though govt has not turned down the proposal, it advised the board to wait for a couple of days to see whether the shortage persists or eases across the country.Power consumption in the state continues to remain high owing to relatively high atmospheric temperatures. The peak demand recorded in recent days was comparable to that recorded during the normal summer months and nearly 1,100MW higher than the demand recorded in Sept in previous years. A shortfall of around 700MW to 900MW was expected on Monday compared with previous days.The national-level shortfall of 12,000MW reported by Grid Controller of India had also not been fully resolved. The 200MW that the state had been receiving from Madhya Pradesh under a swap arrangement was not available on Monday, resulting in an additional shortfall. However, KSEB managed to arrange an additional 90MW.KSEB officials remain optimistic that the situation will improve in the coming days. “If indications are anything to go by, the power crisis at the national level may ease in the coming days. KSEB would go for the extremely high-cost NTPC power only if the scarcity persists across the country. Going by the trend, we don’t expect the situation to worsen further,” a senior KSEB official said.
