The Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) will step up the pace of work on Dyuthi 2.0, a scheme designed to equip the electricity distribution network in the State to handle uninterrupted supply and peak demand situations, especially in the summer.
Keeping an eye on summer 2025, works planned under ‘Dyuthi 2.0’ for the 2024-25 financial year will be completed before March 2025. The original plan size of ₹803.47 crore will be retained, as per a decision taken by the KSEB director board. In May this year, the power utility had cleared a revised proposal for Dyuthi 2.0 with special packages for Malappuram, Idukki and Kasaragod, but had then limited the work to ₹257 crore citing financial crunch.
The latest decision to revert to the original plan follows an internal assessment that “the current plans under Dyuthi are insufficient to meet the peak demand situation and KSEB’s goal of having two sources of power supply at every point of the feeder,” according to the KSEB.
Further, the director board has recommended “immediate action” to start work on the ₹1,023.04 crore special package. It has also been decided to kick off Dyuthi 2.0 works for 2025-26 in April 2025 so that they can be completed by September that year.
In recent years, Kerala has been facing severe power shortages during the summer months, straining the KSEB’s finances and the intra-state transmission and distribution infrastructure. The ₹4,035.57 crore Dyuthi 1.0 was designed as a “comprehensive network-based” plan for guaranteeing uninterrupted, quality power with the lowest technical and commercial losses and covered the four years from 2018-2022. Dyuthi 2.0, originally cleared for ₹4,016 crore, takes this plan for a reliable and adequate distribution network forward for the period up to 2026-2027.
Unprecedented electricity usage in recent summers has forced Kerala, which generates only about 30% of its requirement, to depend more and more on expensive power purchases. Daily consumption, which in August hovers around 80 million units (mu), had shot up to a record 115.94 mu at the height of the summer this year.
The National Electricity Plan 2022-32 indicates that Kerala’s annual electricity requirement would soar to 33,903 mu in 2026-27 and 42,885 mu in 2030-31. Peak demand is projected to rise to 5549 megawatts (MW) and 6967 MW, respectively.
In its latest tariff proposals, the KSEB has sought a ‘summer tariff’ of 10 paise per unit for the January-May period for the fiscals from 2024-25 to 2026-27. This is proposed in addition to the regular tariff. The State Electricity Regulatory Commission has not finalised any decision on this proposal.
