3 weeks ago
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In the summertime of 2024, erstwhile it seemed that energy depletion was opening to get retired of hand, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) wanted radical to debar charging their e-vehicles successful the evening hours. The powerfulness inferior had a crushed for it. Consumption levels mostly spike aft 6 p.m., notably successful summertime erstwhile air-conditioners are the go-to limb against the heat. But the crisp emergence successful e-vehicle numbers had opened a caller battlefront for the KSEB that year. Car batteries, inactive successful the evolving stage, took a agelong clip to charge, driving up powerfulness demand. By May the adjacent year, guidelines were successful spot to beforehand EV charging during daylight hours with little tariffs arsenic the proverbial carrot.
Cut to 2026 summer. A caller ‘villain’ was added to the script. Electric cooktops archetypal drew headlines erstwhile the West Asia situation spawned an unprecedented LPG shortage successful Kerala. As March ended and April rolled in, dragging a powerfulness situation with it, electrical cooking appliances excessively were added to the communicative of reasons for the surge successful energy consumption. Air-conditioners, nary longer an extravagance successful Kerala’s muggy weather, stay the main culprits on with EV charging and the usage of energy-guzzling electrical appliances successful the evening hours.
The menace of powerfulness cuts
With the seasonal summertime rainfall inactive successful the shortage bracket, the energy request aft 6 p.m. crossed 6000 megawatts (MW) for the archetypal clip successful Kerala during the 2026 summer. On April 18, it touched a grounds 6033 MW. Daily energy depletion roseate to an unprecedented 118.26 cardinal units (mu) connected April 26, raising the spectre of officially sanctioned load shedding and powerfulness cuts, thing to which Kerala has been immune successful caller years. A high-level gathering of the Power Department and the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) connected April 28 yet decided to enforce below-30-minute ‘load restrictions’ betwixt 6 p.m. and midnight successful unavoidable circumstances for preserving the stableness of the energy grid.
Fortunately for the KSEB and the public, the curbs did not past agelong arsenic summertime rainfall strengthened implicit the State, taking depletion down. In reality, e-cooking was lone the latest summation to a increasing database arsenic Kerala’s dependence connected energy increases by the year.
Reasons for crisis
All this has served to laic bare 1 happening this summertime season: the inability or, arsenic the much sterner critics of the KSEB allege, reluctance of the powerfulness strategy to accommodate to the maturation of renewables. Experts and the ‘prosumer’ class — consumers who are besides energy producers — consciousness that the KSEB is skirting the existent imperative; the request for a strategy that is supportive of changes successful the sector. Effective integration of renewables, particularly daytime-generated star powerfulness pumped into the grid by prosumers, continues to airs problems for the KSEB, mostly connected relationship of inadequacies successful the powerfulness system.
“No 1 tin halt the maturation of star power. It is simply a reality,” says Jameskutty Thomas, a prosumer who represents the Kerala Domestic Solar Prosumers Community. He estimates that star units successful the State make astir 6 to 8 cardinal units (mu) daily. “But the occupation is, the KSEB does not person systems to store this powerfulness for aboriginal use. Consequently, it either surrenders oregon sells surplus powerfulness successful manus during daytime and buys energy astatine exorbitant rates to conscionable the evening demand,” helium says.
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) information amusement however Kerala’s star powerfulness assemblage has grown. The State’s full star capableness stood astatine 2215.59 MW connected March 31, 2026. Of this, home rooftop units (including units nether PM-Surya Ghar Yojana) unsocial accounted for 1850.4 MW. Recently, the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission had recovered that the KSEB has been surrendering up to 1000 MW contracted from the cardinal generating stations (CGS) and different round-the-clock (RTC) contracts during the daytime to accommodate star powerfulness inflow from rooftop and different star procreation sources.
The BESS that did not instrumentality off
In 2022, the KSEB had projected piloting a container-sized artillery vigor retention strategy (BESS) task successful Thiruvananthapuram city. But it did not instrumentality disconnected then. “Viability spread backing (VGF) was disposable for it, but the officers’ relation successful the KSEB opposed it saying it was not viable. On the different hand, the star capableness of the State was not arsenic overmuch arsenic it is now,” recalls B. Ashok, a 1998 batch Kerala cadre IAS serviceman who was president and managing manager of the inferior astatine the time.
“What is lacking successful the KSEB is planning,” says R.V.G. Menon, erstwhile manager of the Agency for New and Renewable Energy Research and Technology (ANERT). A keen perceiver of the powerfulness sector, Prof. Menon had installed a rooftop star portion with artillery retention astatine his location successful 2012 erstwhile it was a novelty successful the State. Today, from an upgraded unit, helium supplies astir 300 units a period to the grid aft his use. The existent contented facing the State’s powerfulness sector, according to him, is powerfulness procreation and its storage.
“The KSEB views star powerfulness arsenic a nuisance. In their short-sightedness, they spot lone that determination is nary powerfulness shortage during daytime arsenic the request is anyhow less. On the different hand, they bargain powerfulness astatine ₹10 and ₹12 per portion to conscionable the precocious request successful the evening hours. It is an simple information that renewable vigor is simply a adaptable entity and it has to beryllium stored. The KSEB is yet to committee a azygous BESS oregon a pumped retention task (PSP), the 2 retention options for renewable energy. The KSEB had drawn up a study successful 2014 saying Kerala had the imaginable for PSPs worthy 5075 MW utilizing existing reservoirs,” helium says. (PSPs are systems with an precocious and a little reservoir. Water is pumped to the precocious level during daytime utilizing cheaper renewable energy. The stored h2o is released down to enactment the turbines during periods of higher powerfulness demand.)
Constraints successful system
Then determination are the ‘system constraints’ that hobble efficiency. Voltage imbalances, for instance, forestall star prosumers from efficaciously injecting surplus powerfulness into the grid. Users and experts consciousness that specified issues would get aggravated unless they are addressed wisely.
R. Harikumar, Director of Energy Management Centre - Kerala, the Power Department bureau that acts arsenic the State nodal bureau for Bureau of Energy Efficiency initiatives, points retired that Kerala is inactive incapable to pat the star potential, contempt the accelerated maturation of the sector. He says the powerfulness assemblage could find it troublesome moving up without vigor retention systems. “There was an announcement successful 2017 that Kerala’s star capableness would interaction 1000 MW successful 2022. So the EMC organised a league successful 2018 to sermon the constitution of PSPs that could grip the retention needed for this daytime generation. But we inactive don’t person one,” helium says.
There are studies that peg Kerala’s star imaginable astatine astir 30 gigawatts (GW), dispersed crossed aggregate star categories specified arsenic rooftop and ground-mounted star and agri-photovoltaics. Kerala has besides identified 13 locations for PSPs to harness a imaginable of much than 6 GW of PSP.
Just 30% of requirement
But the world is somewhat different. It is nary quality that the confederate State produces lone astir 30% of its energy requirement. The remainder is met done an elaborate strategy of short, mean and agelong word power-purchase contracts, supplies from the cardinal generating stations (CGS), and ‘banking’ and ‘swap’ arrangements with utilities elsewhere successful the country. Meeting the summertime request remains a tight-rope locomotion for the KSEB, the State-run powerfulness institution which handles generation, transmission and organisation wrong Kerala. This is particularly existent erstwhile summertime rainfall goes AWOL, similar it did this time.
On galore days successful the existent season, ‘imports’ accounted for implicit 80% of the request met, revealing, yet again, the grade of Kerala’s reliance connected costly powerfulness purchases and powerfulness procreation plants situated extracurricular its boundaries. The inferior spent ₹12,982.59 crore successful 2023-24 and ₹12,749.65 crore successful 2024-25 connected powerfulness purchases.
Internal generation
According to Kerala authorities figures, arsenic connected March 31, 2025, the State’s installed capableness — nationalist and backstage included — stood astatine 4412.14 MW, of which hydropower accounted for 2284.42 MW, 51.8%. The State’s star powerfulness capability, having gained momentum successful caller years, contributed 1519.66 MW (34.4%). Thermal powerfulness and upwind accounted for 536.4 MW (12.2%) and 71.53 MW (1.6%) respectively. The KSEB’s ain interior procreation stood astatine 2409.8 MW, including 2196.4 MW of hydel, 160 MW of thermal, 51.4 MW of star and 2 MW of upwind power.
The Economic Review 2025 has noted that ‘Growing energy request requires accrued procreation capableness and reliable powerfulness supply.’ When drafting up the 14th Five Year Plan for Kerala (2022-27), the State Planning Board had listed ‘Resource constraints successful promoting renewable vigor projects,’ ‘Lack of transparent argumentation connected powerfulness procurement from renewable vigor sources,’ and ‘Delay successful commissioning of projects’ arsenic 3 ‘Critical gaps/issues successful the vigor sector’ during the 13th Plan period. Power assemblage observers accidental these issues stay unaddressed.
During the caller powerfulness crisis, the KSEB was roundly scolded by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission for slipshod summertime management. The Commission headed by T.K. Jose, a erstwhile bureaucrat, observed that contingency situations successful the summertime months were not a caller improvement for Kerala. “During the 2024 summertime months, the State had gone done a akin concern and KSEB was expected to summation capable acquisition successful handling specified a situation,” the sheet observed successful a caller order.
Factors raising powerfulness consumption
The State powerfulness regulator, which plays an important relation successful the powerfulness sector, asserted that the LPG shortage contributed to the enhanced depletion successful 2026 summertime isolated from clime alteration factors and the sparse summertime showers. “Factors contributing to the hike successful depletion could person been detected good successful beforehand and due information, acquisition and connection measures and advocacies for reducing the peak-hour depletion could person been taken,” Mr. Jose wrote successful the order.
On its part, the KSEB had categorically denied immoderate mismanagement oregon deficiency of readying for the summer, peculiarly successful the substance of h2o absorption successful the hydel reservoirs. A elder KSEB authoritative said that the KSEB has respective BESS and PSP projects nether mode astatine the moment. The KSEB’s archetypal large-scale BESS is nether improvement astatine Mylatti successful Kasaragod district. This task has a capableness of 125 megawatts (MW)/500 Megawatt Hour (MWh) wherever MW denotes the maximum magnitude of powerfulness that it tin present astatine a fixed moment, and MWh, the full magnitude of vigor that the strategy tin store, the authoritative said. “Additional BESS volition travel up astatine KSEB substations astatine Areacode successful Malappuram, Sreekantapuram successful Alappuzha district, Pothencode successful Thiruvananthapuram and Mulleria successful Kasaragod. Several PSPs are besides successful the pipeline,” the KSEB authoritative notes.
Prosumer organisations, meanwhile, telephone for much localised solutions. “What we request is transformer-based vigor storage. You besides cannot expect each star prosumer to bargain artillery storage, which is unaffordable for mean prosumers unless determination is immoderate benignant of subsidy support. They’ve already spent a batch of wealth connected the star units,” points retired Jameskutty Thomas.
In presumption of vigor security, the soaring vigor request is definite to airs formidable challenges for the State and its caller government. Kerala’s highest energy request volition soon transcend 7000 MW, driven mostly by a surge successful air-conditioner use, according to the study ‘Analysing Viability of Energy Storage Systems (ESS) astatine the Sub-national level,’ prepared by EMC - Kerala. It says that EVs, induction cookstoves and air-conditioners would spot an further vigor request of, respectively, 339 mu, 340 mu and 1208 mu connected the powerfulness system. Having the infrastructure successful spot to accommodate emerging needs would beryllium to beryllium a large challenge.
