A public sector company has been selected to do a detailed study for setting up a new power house in Idukki to augment Kerala's power generation capacity. The Kerala government will sign the agreement for the study soon, as it tries to increase capacity in the state to reduce the high dependence on electricity from outside for local consumption.
WAPCOS (earlier known as Water and Power Consultancy Services Limited), a public sector company, has been selected to do the study. The consultancy organisation, under the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, quoted the lowest price in a global tender in which four companies, including some international ones, had taken part.
The power house will have a capacity of 780 MW. The new underground station will be located at Moolamattom, which already houses the state’s largest power generation station.
The existing station has a capacity of 780 MW and it has six generators. The new station, with the same capacity, will also have six generators.
The new power house will be built by digging through mountains and it will need a tunnel of 700 metres to reach it. The project is estimated to cost Rs 20,000 crore.
The global tenders were called for after the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) submitted the pre-feasibility report of the project to the state government.
The detailed study for the project will take two years, KSEB officials said. They said WAPCOS will study both the technical and financial aspects of the project after which the state will apply for the various central government permissions to construct it.
The construction can start only after all these processes are completed, the officials said.
The average daily usage of KSEB is 72.74 million units. However, only 15.17 million units are produced in the state. The KSEB overcomes the huge deficit by buying power from outside the state, officials said. The average daily cost of electricity thus purchased from outside is Rs 20.80 crore.
The KSEB's pre-feasibility report says that while the state has the capacity to generate up to 6,000 MW of power, the board and private companies generate only 2,124 MW. About 1.20 crore people consume the power generated by KSEB. As the domestic use of power grows, it is imperative that new projects are set up in the state, the report said.
