Sharing of power from nuke plants in place: Venugopal

Kochi: Union Minister of State for Power KC Venugopal today said a format with regard to sharing of power from nuclear and thermal plants was in place, which had not been altered so far.

The minister was responding to a query from media personnel over Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa staking claim over the plant’s entire projected generation of 2,000 MW power from Kudankulam nuclear plant.

Venugopal said the allocation of power from nuclear and thermal plants were based on pre-set norms.

There is a clear format as per which 50 percent of power allocated from these plants would go to the home state where it was located, 15 percent to the Centre and the remaining is decided as per the per capita consumption and allocation to each state. These norms have not been changed so far, he said.

Kerala was getting the maximum unalloted quota from central pool compared to other southern states – Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, he said.

About 1,300 MW central share has been alloted to Kerala.

In the 11th five year plan, 55,000 MW of power was generated and Kerala’s contribution was 100 mw. In the 12th plan, the Centre was planning to generate 75,000 MW of power and Kerala’s contribution would be nil, he said.

While there would be no power crisis in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in the next two years, Kerala’s consumption by 2016 will touch 4,800 MW and there would be a deficit of 1,000 MW, he said.

The Centre was making efforts to reduce the excise duty on Naptha, he said.

Kerala should go for non-conventional energy like wind and solar and mini hydel projects of 25 MW for its power needs, he said.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, reacting to his Tamil Nadu counterpart’s demand, said it was for the Centre to take a decision on the matter.

PTI