Call for power conservation

ബ്രൈറ്റനിംഗ് കേരള

Brightening Kerala

Electricity Minister Aryadan Mohammed has said the current situation calls for more focus on conservation of electricity, and not its generation.

He said this while addressing a gathering after inaugurating the “Brightening Kerala” project of the KSEB Engineers Association.

The project aims at promoting judicious use of energy and the need for new environment friendly major generating stations. The minister said by the end of the X11 Five Year Plan, the power needs of the State would touch 4,669 MW. At present, the generation was only around 1,700 MW.

This called for urgently increasing the generation capacity by an additional 2,000 MW within the next two years. It was with this aim that a scheme for tapping solar power was being launched. This year 10,000 houses were targeted to be installed with roof-top solar panels. In the long run, at least 3 lakh houses in the State should have roof top solar panels installed, he said.

Mr. Mohammed said the KSEB was purchasing power from outside the State at such a high cost that losses of the KSEB would touch Rs.2,000 crore this year.

The storage level in the State’s hydel power generation station reservoirs was now only 45 per cent of their level last year at this time. In the coming days increase in load shedding would become inevitable, he said, adding that conservation of power should hence be given more focus. For fresh hydro electric projects, getting environment clearance was a big problem. But even if a clearance was obtained, the opposition to such projects came from within the State itself, he said.

Source The Hindu