The decision, which will cost the cash-strapped KSEB a couple of crores, was taken at an emergency meeting held at the board headquarters at Thriuvananthapuram the other day. The meeting was attended among others by board chairman K Mohananchandran.

Top sources in KSEB told The Financial Express that the board was forced to take the costly decision in a bid to avoid possible crunch in power supply in view of the emergency situation stemming from the near breakdown of three generators of the Idukki hydel power station. The generators have a capacity of 130 mw each. The total capacity of the Idukki hydel power station, one of the oldest and biggest power stationsin the State is 780 mw; 130 x 6 mw.

The SEB sources said the board engineers had detected serious problems, including water leaking and trouble with the `bell stock' system of three of the six generators of the project the other day. "This requires a complete shut down of the troubled generators for a thorough overhaul which will take nearly 21 days," the sources added.

To bridge the supply gap to the tune of 390 mw of power during the peak load time, the board has decided to purchase the full power generated from the NTPC's Kayamkulam Thermal Power Plant for a period of three weeks. The 350-mw NTPC's Kayamkulam Thermal Power station was asked by the SEB to generate according to the variable demand per day, following the high cost of power charged by NTPC.

With the SEB directive, the 115 mw first phase of the NTPC is working at a lower plant load factor as approved by the engineer concerned supervising the grid. The new SEB decision will help the NTPC plant to generate power in full blast and sell it tothe SEB during the peak load hours. The thermal station is producing 5.5 million units of power per day from its first unit now.

The SEB decision would prove a windfall to NTPC as it could now function at a full capacity and charge a price of Rs 4 per unit during the peak demand time. Sources added that NTPC's supply might not suffice to cover the entire supply gap. But the utilisation of idle capacity in other units, including the Brahmapuram Diesel Plant, would help KSEB cover its gap.