State's share of power from Kudankulam may be delayed

The wait for power from the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) just got longer. Sources in the Southern Regional Load Displacement Centre said that the plant would test supply power to the southern grid for the next two and a half months.

It is said that the additional power of 1,000 MWe to be generated by the first unit of the plant may be added on to the grid only by December-end or January 2014.

Officials said domestic nuclear power generation still being in a nascent stage, Nuclear Power Corporation of India is leaving nothing to chance before streamlining supply to the stakeholders drawing from the southern regional grid. The stakeholders of the KNPP are Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala states and the Union Territory of Puducherry. Other stakeholders are yet to be identified by the Power Corporation.

Sources said the southern grid will have to stabilise with the additional load of no less than 1,000 MWe being generated from the nuclear plant, and its subsequent distribution to the five states. The Karnataka government is not likely to take into account the nuclear power from KNPP this financial year. When contacted by Deccan Herald, Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Managing Director Kumar Naik said the government is not banking on Tamil Nadu nuclear power to bail out the State from its persistent power crisis during summer.

“We cannot bank upon the power which is not yet generated. According to our estimates, the power generated by the nuclear plant will be accounted for only from the next financial year. For the summer of 2014, we will be making other arrangements,” said Naik.

Karnataka has been earmarked 221 MWe of power from the first unit and another 221 MWe from the second unit of the nuclear plant.