Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 18 (IANS) With Kerala battling an unprecedented power crunch amid soaring temperatures, low reservoir levels and a widening demand-supply gap, Electricity Minister Sunny Joseph on Friday said the government would seriously explore floating solar projects and pumped-storage facilities as part of a long-term strategy to secure the state’s power needs.
Joseph announced this while addressing a roundtable on renewable energy on the concluding day of the three-day Reimagining Keralam programme.
The timing of the proposal is significant as Kerala has been witnessing power restrictions in recent days, with peak demand surging while availability has fallen sharply.
Peak demand crossed 5,200 MW earlier this month, while availability was around 4,200 MW, forcing the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) to impose restrictions during peak hours.
The immediate crisis has exposed Kerala’s dependence on hydel generation and power procured from outside the state. Poor rainfall and low water levels in reservoirs have reduced hydropower generation, while high temperatures have pushed up consumption. Availability of power from other states has also been affected by wider supply constraints.
The power cuts have triggered considerable public criticism, particularly because routine restrictions had become relatively uncommon during the previous decade of LDF rule. The Satheesan government has consequently faced pressure to find an immediate solution even as it works on long-term capacity augmentation.
Joseph said Kerala’s geographical characteristics and the changing climate made large-scale conventional solar and wind projects difficult in the state. The government would therefore examine floating solar projects, pumped-storage facilities and community-level battery storage systems with the participation of local bodies.
The state has the potential to generate up to 2,000 MW through floating solar installations, said M.R. Narayanan, who pioneered concrete-based floating solar projects at the Banasura Sagar reservoir in Wayanad. He called for a single-window clearance mechanism to speed up such projects.
KSEB chairman and managing director M.G. Rajamanickam said energy conservation had to become part of government policy, describing it as the most practical immediate response to the crisis. He said the growing number of households installing rooftop solar systems was also changing consumption patterns and called for systems to alert consumers about their power use and incentivise conservation.
The roundtable also discussed integrating solar photovoltaic, wind, small hydropower, biomass and waste-to-energy into a common energy management system, besides deploying battery storage at utility, community, institutional and household levels.
For the government, however, the challenge remains immediate – finding enough power to keep Kerala’s increasingly hot homes and businesses running today, while building a system that will not leave the state scrambling for electricity every time the dams run short of water.
–IANS
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