Power crisis in state under control; Minister Krishnankutty

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The meeting of the top officials of KSEB, convened by Minister of Electricity K Krishnankutty, assessed that the temporary power crisis in the state, due to the ongoing severe heat wave, has been brought under control. The Minister discussed with the various officers and labour organizations of KSEB about the increase in electricity usage in the state due to the prolonged heat wave and the resulting crises and solutions and gave instructions at the official level to resolve the issues that can be solved urgently. Then a discussion was held with the senior officials from the Deputy Chief Engineer in the transmission and distribution sector. Jyotilal IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Energy, Dr Rajan N Khobragade IAS, CMD KSEBL, Directors of KSEB and others also participated in the discussion.

According to the information provided by various Deputy Chief Engineers, based on discussions held with large power consumers, Kerala Water Authority, Lift Irrigation and other public sector organizations across the state, there has been a reduction of about 117 MW in peak power consumption. Many private firms responded to KSEB's call by waiving off duty shifts during peak hours. Availability of transformer, transformer oil, electricity meter and other supplies were also discussed in the meeting. Following the non-availability of transformers from KEL, where KSEB had placed an order for, the transformers were urgently procured from other firms. The directors of KSEB assured that steps have been taken to get the meters to replace the faulty ones. The CMD, KSEBL has informed that an order has been issued to remove the restrictions on procurement of supplies at the local level for emergency purposes.

In the meeting, it was suggested that actions should be taken to prevent the recurrence of voltage problems and continuous power outages like this year's summer. Instructions have also been given to complete various substations in the transmission sector where work is progressing with urgency. A proposal was also made in the meeting to speed up the repair of transformers by introducing more shifts in five TMR (Transformer and Meter Testing Repair) units of KSEB. Apart from this, the meeting instructed that senior officials at the level of Deputy Chief Engineer should carry out inspections during peak hours in the districts with control room system.

The meeting assessed that the temporary power crisis in the state has been completely brought under control as the interventions made by the field offices of KSEB have received good responses from the consumers.