THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With Kerala facing an unprecedented summer, the ripple effect is also evident within KSEB as the electricity consumption has skyrocketed. On Wednesday alone, 106.8882 million units were consumed across the state. These high numbers of electricity consumption is a first in the history of KSEB. The consumption has been above one hundred million units daily for two weeks. Amidst this high consumption, complaints are rising from many homes about experiencing low voltage.

Voltage drop is caused by an insufficient amount of power reaching the transformers and consumption exceeding its capacity. Consumers are not cooperating despite KSEB's request to minimize the operation of high-voltage equipment at night.

Electricity consumption becomes excessive between 6 pm and 11 pm. As the consumption increases, the voltage will decrease. To quell the concern with voltage, the government is currently left with no other alternative than to mull over introducing load shedding. As of now, the government is shrewdly planning to introduce load shedding after Kerala goes to poll on April 26th.

Out of 106.82 million units consumed by Kerala yesterday, domestic production was just 13.14 million units. As big as 90.27 million units were purchased from other states. About 20 million units were purchased from the power exchange at the prevailing market rate. It is bought by paying 8 to 12 rupees per unit. On some days, the rate may go up to Rs 20 per unit.

In March alone, an additional Rs 256 crore was spent on buying power from other states. A surcharge of 19 paise per unit will continue in April.