Thiruvananthapuram: In the first week of September, Chief Minister V D Satheesan said that Kerala's power crisis would ease by September 15. As it turned out, it has lasted the entire month.

Except for six days, there were power restrictions for the whole of September. In many places in Kerala, especially the suburban areas, the shedding was done in multiple bouts of 30 minutes each or an uninterrupted shut-off for even two to three hours.

From October 1, there will be no night-time power cuts. The Congress-led Himachal Pradesh government has agreed to supply power to meet Kerala's peak time demand in October. "By then, we hope that we could put in place a purchase agreement that would meet the estimated power deficit in November. The supply deals for December and beyond, till the start of monsoon next year in June, have been successfully closed," a top KSEB official said.

The official said that, at the moment, there was surplus power in Himachal Pradesh. "The exact quantum of power that will be supplied has not yet been specified. But the agreement is that power will be supplied according to Kerala's requirement," the official said. The price, too, has not yet been fixed. "It might be slightly over Rs 10 per unit, but the government has empowered us to go ahead with the purchase," the official said.

The power crisis will ease in other ways, too. During August and September, KSEB has been returning the power it had contracted from other states like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh during the summer months of March and April. From October 1, the 'payback' of power will virtually come to a stop.

In August, Kerala had been returning an average 6-7 million units of power daily. In September, it had come down to just below 4 MU. Therefore, the huge quantity of power that was being used to settle Kerala's debt can now be conserved for use in the state.

At least 400 MW will additionally flow to Kerala from October by way of Short-term Open Access (STOA) contracts. STOA allows power utilities like KSEB to use transmission and distribution networks for short periods - one month to up to one year - to buy power directly from other sources within the country.

In September, the availability from STOA was 200 MW. From October, it will be 600 MW.

There were no power restrictions for five days at a stretch from September 24. This was made possible by two factors: one, a fall in peak demand, which resulted in a peak demand shortage of virtually zero; and two, increased availability of power in the short-term market as a result of surplus in states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha.

However, on September 29 and 30, power restrictions returned. During these days, peak-hour shortage shot up again. On September 29, the shortage ranged from 124 MW to 611 MW between the evening peak of 6.20 pm to 11.30 pm.

A top source said that on the last day of September, the shortage was close to 500 MW. KSEB desperately shopped for power on Wednesday (September 30). "Haryana and Delhi had surplus but together they could provide only 250 MW. The shortage, on the other hand, is 500 MW," a senior KSEB engineer said.

Nonetheless, from October 1, the power eclipse is expected to soften.