THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite the strike by a section of KSEB officials, the Chairman, who remained cautious, recovered about Rs 500 crore which should have been lost through corruption. Ashok intervened and put an end to irregularities in the solar power deal signed with Tata Power during the previous administration.

The scam took place in the solar power purchase tender called by KSEB in September 2020. According to the Central Government's Renewable Purchase Implementation Regulation, power distribution companies in the State are required to use a certain percentage of green power. For Kerala it is five per cent. Failure to do so will result in a penalty of Rs. 1 per unit. To avoid this, a tender was invited for 200 MW of solar power in September. NTPC and Tatapower's subsidiary TP Solar came up with a bid of Rs 3 per unit on the model of a reverse auction. They paid Rs 2.97 per unit. This was fully approved by KSEB and the contract was signed. The agreement was to buy 90 MW from NTPC and 110 MW from Tata. The State Electricity Regulatory Commission approved this in June 2021 without any dispute. Meanwhile, K.S. Krishnankutty became Electricity minister and Ashok appointed as KSEB chairman.

During scrutiny, was found that the transaction was causing huge losses to KSEB. The contract was finally signed after correction in December at a rate of Rs 2.44. This new rate was given permission by Regulatory commisiion.