Kerala chief minister calls emergency meeting on the power crisis
Peak demand has risen from 4,000 MW to 5,200 MW in a year while the state generates only a quarter of what it uses. The electricity minister has appealed for public cooperation.
Kerala Chief Minister V D Satheesan chaired an emergency review meeting on Friday on the state's power crisis, as nightly power cuts continued and electricity minister Sunny Joseph appealed for public cooperation.
The state generates only 25 per cent of its own electricity requirement and buys the rest from outside, Joseph said — a structural position that leaves Kerala exposed whenever demand rises or purchase arrangements lapse.
The numbers behind the shortfall
Joseph set out the scale of the increase. Power demand that stood at 4,000 MW during the same period last year has risen to 5,200 MW this year, he said — a jump of 30 per cent.
He attributed the rise to several factors at once: charging of electric vehicles at night, the use of air conditioners and coolers, and declining rainfall. Lower rainfall matters more in Kerala than in most states, because it reduces hydroelectric generation at the same time as heat pushes consumption up.
The meeting
Satheesan chaired the review with chief secretary Bishwanath Sinha and Kerala State Electricity Board chairman and managing director M G Rajamanickam.
"Directives have been issued for immediate, high-priority actions to resolve the crisis," Satheesan said. The specific measures were not detailed.
The minister's appeal
Joseph acknowledged on Friday that the problem could not be solved by "switching off a button", and framed his response as a request rather than an announcement.
"I understand the pain that the people are going through, especially families who have sick members and children," he said. "I am a public servant who has lived an ordinary life, so I can understand their sentiments," he said. "That's why I am appealing for the cooperation of the public. I am getting numerous calls and messages."
On procurement, he said the state was willing to buy: "We cannot perform miracles. We are ready to buy electricity at the permissible tariff."
The phrase "at the permissible tariff" carries the constraint. A state may be willing to purchase power and still be unable to secure it if the market price sits above the ceiling it is allowed to pay.
A cancelled contract
Joseph attributed part of the shortfall to a decision by the previous state government. He said the cancellation of a long-term power agreement for 465 MW at ₹4.29 per unit had aggravated the situation, and said more broadly that the issue arose from that government's decision to suspend long-standing agreements with private suppliers.
That is the minister's account. A 465 MW contract is close to 9 per cent of the current 5,200 MW peak, which gives a sense of what the disputed agreement would have covered had it remained in force.
The opposition position
The CPI(M) and the BJP have both called for urgent measures to resolve the crisis and to end the multiple power cuts at night.
The BJP has warned that it will hold protest marches to district offices of the Kerala State Electricity Board over the weekend if the state government does not address the crisis and stop the night-time cuts.
Why nights are the pressure point
The cuts being complained of are concentrated at night, and the demand drivers Joseph listed are largely night-time ones. Electric vehicle charging is typically done overnight. Air conditioning runs through the hottest nights.
That combination produces an evening and overnight peak that a state buying three-quarters of its power has to cover through purchases at precisely the hours when every other state in the region wants the same thing.
What has not been said
The government has not published the immediate actions Satheesan directed, nor a timeline for ending the night cuts. Joseph did not say what volume of additional power the state is currently seeking, or at what price.
The measures from Friday's meeting were described only as immediate and high-priority.
