Kerala urges people to cut electricity consumption to avoid power cuts

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) is considering power cuts if the shortage in coal supply in north India continues state Power Minister K Krishnankutty said.

According to The News Minute report, the shortage of coal in the north is expected to continue for a few months and therefore, the state will study how long the power cuts will be needed, if necessary, the minister said.

KSEB Chairman B Ashok told reporters here that they are watching the day-to-day developments, and if people reduce their consumption during the peak hours from 6 pm to 11 pm, then the state could overcome the crisis.

At the moment, three thermal power plants in the state are having a shortage of power production, and if the same occurs to more, the board would definitely resort to power cuts, he said. The state had a daily allocation of 2,200 MW of power from the central pool, which has reduced considerably for the past few days, leading the board to take strong decisions, he added.

But the state is mainly relying on hydroelectric power, and it is having a generous monsoon. So, the need for a major power cut may not rise. However, the central pool allocation reduction may push the state to go for short-term power cuts.

Kerala used to have daily power cuts for half an hour during earlier years when an unprecedented increase in power consumption occurred. The power cut period had increased in 2013 up to an hour a day. But in the following years, there have rarely been power failures, although the state had gone through some of the worst floods in the century, TNM reports