Keralam Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan’s stand comes under a cloud in power purchase row

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan’s stand that power purchases from Himachal Pradesh would have attracted an additional financial liability of ₹2,232 crore has come under a cloud. While Mr. Satheesan claimed at a post-Cabinet briefing that the government had opted for purchases via GNA Energy OTA over the Himachal Pradesh offer, the Kerala State Electricity Board’s (KSEB) documents indicate otherwise. These documents show that the Chief Engineer (Commercial and Tariff) had informed the then Chairperson and Managing Director (KSEB) M.G. Rajamanickam that the Himachal Pradesh arrangement was “more suitable” for meeting the KSEB’s critical peak-hour requirements. Also, the Himachal Pradesh offer promised a substantially higher capacity during evening peak hours and involved lower aggregate expenditure for November 2026 to March 2027. However, Mr. Satheesan had said on Wednesday that the GNA promised to supply more during the peak hours from 6 p.m. to midnight.