By CL Jose
Approval sought for aggregate capital investment at Rs28,419.60 crore until FY27
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/March 05-2022: While Kerala State Electricity Board Ltd (KSEBL) has drawn up Rs28,419.60 crore ambitious capital investment plan for the five years commencing from the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) to FY27, more than 58 per cent of the investment at Rs16, 733.03 crore will be routed towards strengthening the Distribution Unit of the company.
[KSEBL is a state public sector company fully owned by the state of Kerala. There are many who are curious to know why KSEBL despite having been converted into a company, still carries ‘Board’ tag in the name – KSEBL]
KSEBL is being run as three strategic business units (SBUs)- Generation Unit, Transmission Unit and Distribution Unit.
The chairman and managing director (CMD) of KSEBL), B Ashok, has already submitted application to Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (KSERC), seeking approval for the ambitious capital investment plan.
“The regulation requires the licensees to submit the petitions for Capital Investment Plan (CIP), Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARR), and Expected Revenue from Charges (ERC) and the Tariff Revision Proposal for the five-year control period stipulated in the regulation beginning from FY 2022-23 to FY 2026-27,” a KSEBL statement says.
KSEBL has already announced plans for tariff hikes from the ensuing financial year.
While Generation Unit will see investment to the tune of Rs5130.58 crore, Transmission Unit will have the remainder at Rs6556.08 crore.
Daily power consumption
The daily average consumption of Kerala varies around 80 to 85 million units. At the same time, state’s internal generation contributes between 25 to 30 million units.
The balance requirement of the state is met through central generating stations (CGS) (around 30 million unit), long term access (LTA) at around 25 million unit, and through power exchanges.
Generation
As the present internal generation normally provides only around 30 per cent of the total electricity energy requirement of the state, KSEBL has taken up development of a number of renewable projects in addition to the existing projects for meeting the future demand of electricity.
This investment plan is prepared by analysing and anticipating the future energy requirements and strategically planning the requisite capital investments.
As part of the exercise, the company takes into consideration latest trends in power sector, ensures optimal generation capacity mix in the electricity grid protecting the interest of both KSEBL and stakeholders.
The Rs5000 crore plus investment plan in Generation Unit is aimed at handholding KSEBL in the journey towards the goal of achieving energy self-sufficiency for the state.
Distribution
Lack of adequate charging infrastructure was raised as a concern in proliferation of electric vehicles (eVs); at the same time, shortage of vehicle population prevented investors from coming forward to set up electric vehicle charging infrastructure (EVCI).
“To break the ice, State Government and KSEB have taken steps to set up pilot stations at selected locations,” it said. It is estimated that about 1200 Fast Charging Stations will be required additionally in next five years.
Fast Charging Stations may often require installation of Distribution Transformers, UG cables, RMU etc. Considerable capital investment is required to meet the demand.
Large investment for Smart Metering
Out of the Rs16,733 crore to be spent on strengthening the power distribution system in the state, Rs8200 crore will be invested on prepaid smart metering, which is a Centre aided project called RevampedDistribution Sector Scheme (RDSS)
(RDSS).
Another major investment at Rs4316 crore will go to Dhyuthi 2.0, whereas Rs2811.08 crore will be spent on another Central Aided project (RDSS) excluding the prepaid smart metering.
Transmission
In accordance with the investment plan, SBU-T or the Transmission Unit, has prepared Detailed Project Report (DPR) for all projects costing more than Rs10 crore, according to the KSEBL document presented to KSERC.
The DPR has identified thrust areas such as Need for investment; Technical justification; Timing of investment; Prudence of the investment and Cost benefits analysis.
About 75 new capital works under the SBU-T are proposed for the control period exceeding Rs10 crore, for which DPR have already been prepared.
In addition, 14 new capital works come under ‘Transgrid 2.0 scheme’ and one new capital work under state load dispatch centre (SLDC) are planned for the five-year period.
