‘Cannot say how long power cuts will continue’: Minister on Kerala’s power crisis

KOZHIKODE: Electricity Minister Sunny Joseph said a final decision has not yet been taken on purchasing power from the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) at Rs 30 per unit. The minister said purchasing electricity at such a high rate would put a heavy financial burden on the state. "Everyone knows that buying power at such a high rate will create a huge financial liability. Cabinet approval is also required for this," he said.

“We are trying every possible way to address the crisis. At present, I cannot say how long the power cuts will continue. Our aim is to resolve the issue as quickly as possible,” the minister said.

Sunny Joseph had said the previous day that the state was in a situation where it had to purchase electricity at Rs 30 per unit.

“There is no point worrying about the money; what we need is power. A contract under which we could have received 465 MW of electricity for 25 years at a rate of Rs 4.26 to Rs 4.29 per unit was cancelled. We are now in a situation where we have to buy power at Rs 30 per unit. We are trying to restore the cancelled contract. The KSEB chairman has been entrusted with the responsibility of taking steps in this regard,” he said.

“When temperatures rose in Kerala, we had to borrow electricity. Now, that has to be repaid. Have we not realised now that cancelling the contract was a wrong decision? It was after the contract was cancelled that we had to borrow electricity. Otherwise, we would not have been in a situation where we had to borrow power now. We will take every possible step to purchase electricity,” the minister said.

Meanwhile, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) has invited tenders to purchase power for the October-December period. Tenders have been invited for 600 MW during peak hours and 900 MW during off-peak hours.