Kerala power cuts put Satheesan government under pressure

Kerala's worsening power crisis has emerged as a major challenge for the Satheesan government, with the Opposition attacking continuing power cuts and experts warning of deeper vulnerabilities, including dependence on external power, volatile procurement costs and inadequate long-term planning

Thiruvananthapuram: The power crisis is fast emerging as the first major political and administrative challenge for the V.D. Satheesan government, with the Left Opposition stepping up its attack over the continuing power cuts and contrasting the situation with the previous decade when Kerala had largely remained free of scheduled power restrictions.

Electricity Minister Sunny Joseph’s admission on Tuesday that no final decision has been taken on buying power from NTPC at around Rs 30 a unit has added to the uncertainty.

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The minister said such high-cost procurement would impose a huge financial burden on the state and would require Cabinet approval.

He also declined to say how long the current power cuts would continue, saying the government was trying all possible options to resolve the crisis at the earliest.

The CPI(M) led Left is using the shortage to portray the new government as incapable of managing the power sector, pointing out that routine cuts had virtually disappeared during the 10 years of the Pinarayi Vijayan government.

The political challenge for the Satheesan government is that consumers, rather than statistics on power availability, are now directly experiencing the impact of the shortage.

But power sector experts argue that the present crisis cannot be viewed merely as a failure to procure enough electricity at short notice.

Engineering physicist and power sector expert K.S. Manoj said the shortage exposed a deeper vulnerability in Kerala’s power system, its dependence on external power, volatile procurement costs and the absence of sufficiently strong long-term planning.

“The immediate question is the cost of keeping the system running. If 300 MW were to be purchased continuously at Rs 30 per unit, the power bill alone would work out to about Rs 2.16 crore a day, or nearly Rs 65 crore for 30 days. The actual financial impact, however, would depend on the quantity procured, duration and contractual terms,” said Manoj.

He said that KSEB needed a full-time professional Chairman and Managing Director with expertise in power-system management.

He says the issue should not become an IAS-versus-technocrat debate, but that whoever heads the utility should have the technical competence, managerial ability, accountability and continuity needed to handle decisions involving power procurement, generation, transmission and electricity markets.

The crisis has also revived questions over Kerala’s long-term power strategy.

The state needs an integrated 15-20 year plan covering demand growth, hydropower availability, renewable energy, electric vehicles, energy storage and the possibility of national-level power shortages.

The focus, the expert says, should shift from merely adding installed capacity to ensuring firm and flexible power during periods of peak demand.

Hydro and pumped-storage potential, battery storage, renewable generation, demand response and a diversified procurement portfolio would have to form part of such a strategy.

The present crisis is also likely to bring earlier long-term power purchase agreements under renewed scrutiny.

Such agreements, the expert argues, should be assessed through an independent technical and financial review rather than through political blame.

For the Satheesan government, however, the immediate political reality is more pressing.

Until supply stabilises, the Opposition is likely to keep presenting the power cuts as evidence of administrative failure, while the government will have to explain why a state that went through a decade with virtually no routine cuts is now facing a shortage severe enough to consider buying power at an exceptionally high price.

The real test, therefore, is not merely how the government gets Kerala through the present shortage, but whether it can prevent the cycle of shortage, emergency procurement, high costs and renewed shortage from becoming a recurring feature of the state’s power sector.