The southwest monsoon has been deficient in the catchment areas of the hydro-electric projects in Kerala so far.
According to KSEB officials, the inflow to the State's major reservoirs has not been encouraging. Usually, 740 million units (MUs) could be generated from inflows in June but during the current week, only 63 million units could be generated, they said.
Dry weather prevailed in the catchment areas of the major projects in the last two days and that is a matter of concern, the officials said.
Daily demand for power had dropped to 48 Mus after the onset of the monsoon. But it increased to 51.3 Mus yesterday.
According to an earlier forecast, peninsular India will have deficient rainfall this year. However, the latest forest claimed it would receive 95 per cent rains. However, the current trend has not been encouraging for us so far, the officials said.
Hydel power generation was at 15 Mus with 6.5 Mus coming from the small hydel projects, such as Kuttiyadi, Panniyar and Lower Periyar. But, its sustainability for long is difficult because of their low capacity, they said.
Since the onset of monsoon, purchase of high-cost power from the NTPC's Kayamkulam and BSES’ Eloor plants was discontinued. But, if the current weak monsoon trend continued, there might not be an alternative to the high-cost thermal power that costs around Rs 12 a unit, they said.