In the summer of 2024, when electricity consumption seemed to be getting out of control, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) wanted people to avoid charging their e-vehicles in the evening. The energy company had a reason for this. Consumption levels generally rise after 6 p.m., especially in summer, when air conditioners are the best weapon against the heat. However, the surge in the number of electric vehicles has opened up a new battlefront for KSEB this year. Car batteries, still in development, took a long time to charge, increasing energy consumption. In May next year, guidelines were introduced to encourage charging of electric cars during daylight hours with lower tariffs as the proverbial carrot.
Cut to summer 2026. A new ‘villain’ has been added to the script. Electric cooktops first hit the headlines when the crisis in West Asia caused an unprecedented shortage of LPG in Kerala. With the end of March and the beginning of April, which brought with it the energy crisis, electric cooking appliances were added to the narrative about the reasons for the sharp increase in electricity consumption. Air conditioners, no longer an extravagance in Kerala’s stifling weather, remain the main culprits, along with EV charging and use of energy-guzzling electrical appliances in the evening.
Threat of power outages
With seasonal summer rainfall still in the deficit zone, electricity demand after 6 pm crossed 6000 megawatts (MW) for the first time in Kerala during summer 2026. On April 18, it touched a record 6033 MW. Daily electricity consumption rose to an unprecedented 118.26 million units (mu) on April 26, raising the specter of officially sanctioned load shedding and blackouts that Kerala has been immune to in recent years. A high-level meeting of the Power Ministry and the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) on 28 April finally decided to impose less than 30 minutes of “load curtailment” between 6 pm and midnight under unavoidable circumstances to maintain the stability of the power grid.
Fortunately for KSEB and the public, the curbs did not last long as the summer rainfall over the state intensified and reduced consumption. In fact, electronic cooking was just the latest addition to the growing list as Kerala’s dependence on electricity grows year by year.
The reasons for the crisis
All this has revealed one thing this summer season: the inability or, as KSEB’s harsher critics claim, the unwillingness of the energy system to adapt to the growth of renewable sources. Experts and the ‘prosumer’ category – consumers who are also electricity producers – believe that KSEB is bypassing the real imperative; the need for a system that supports changes in the industry. The effective integration of renewable energy sources, especially daily solar power pumped into the grid by consumers, continues to pose challenges for KSEB, mainly due to deficiencies in the power grid.
“No one can stop the growth of solar energy. It is a reality,” says Jameskutty Thomas, a prosumer who represents the Kerala Domestic Solar Prosumers Community. He estimates that solar units in the state generate around 6 to 8 million units (mu) per day. “But the problem is that KSEB does not have systems to store this power for later use. As a result, it either gives up or sells the excess power in hand during the day and buys electricity at exorbitant rates to meet the evening demand,” he says.
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) data shows how the solar energy sector has grown in Kerala. The total solar capacity of the state was 2215.59 MW on March 31, 2026. Of this, domestic rooftop units alone (including units under PM-Surya Ghar Yojana) accounted for 1850.4 MW. Recently, the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission found that KSEB was giving up up to 1000 MW contracted from central generating stations (CGS) and other continuous (RTC) contracts during the day to accommodate the influx of solar power from rooftop and other solar sources.
A BESS that didn’t take off
In 2022, KSEB proposed a container-sized Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) pilot project in Thiruvananthapuram city. But it didn’t work then. “Viability Gap Funding (VGF) was available for it, but the officers’ association in KSEB opposed it, saying it was not viable. On the other hand, the state’s solar capacity was not what it is now,” recalls B. Ashok, a 1998-batch Kerala cadre IAS officer who was the company’s chairman and managing director at the time.
“What is missing in KSEB is planning,” says RVG Menon, former director of the Agency for New and Renewable Energy Research and Technology (ANERT). Prof. A keen observer of the energy sector, Menon installed a rooftop solar unit with battery storage at his home in 2012, when it was new in the state. Today, after its use, the modernized unit delivers around 300 units to the network per month. According to him, the real problem facing the state energy industry is the production of electricity and its storage.
“KSEB sees solar power as a nuisance. In their short-sightedness, they only see that there is no shortage of power during the day because the demand is less anyway. On the other hand, they buy power at ₹ 10 and ₹ 12 per unit to meet the high demand in the evening. The basic fact is that ESS or renewable energy is a variable entity and KSEB has to be accumulated by the project. (PSP), two renewable energy storage options, KSEB has worked out in report in 2014 that Kerala has a PSP potential of 5075 MW using existing storage,” he says. (PSPs are upper and lower reservoir systems. Water is pumped to the upper level during the day using cheaper renewable energy. Stored water is released downwards to run turbines during periods of higher energy demand.)
Restrictions in the system
Then there are “system constraints” that cripple efficiency. Voltage imbalances, for example, prevent solar panel manufacturers from efficiently supplying excess power to the grid. Users and experts believe that if not dealt with wisely, these problems would worsen.
R. Harikumar, Director, Center for Energy Management – Kerala, a Power Department agency that acts as the state’s nodal agency for the Bureau of Energy Efficiency initiatives, points out that Kerala is still unable to tap the solar potential, despite the sector’s rapid growth. He says it could be difficult for the energy sector to move forward without energy storage systems. “In 2017, it was announced that Kerala’s solar capacity would touch 1,000 MW by 2022. So EMC organized a conference in 2018 to discuss setting up a PSP that could handle the storage required for this daily generation. But we still don’t have one,” he says.
There are studies that peg Kerala’s solar potential at around 30 gigawatts (GW), spread across multiple solar categories such as rooftop and ground-mounted solar and agricultural photovoltaics. Kerala has also identified 13 sites for PSPs to tap the potential of more than 6 GW of PSPs.
Only 30% of the request
But the reality is somewhat different. It is no news that the southern state produces only about 30% of its electricity needs. The rest is met through an elaborate system of short-, medium- and long-term power purchase agreements, supplies from central power plants (CGS), and “banking” and “swap” arrangements with power companies elsewhere in the country. Meeting the summer demand remains a tightrope for KSEB, the state-owned electricity company that handles generation, transmission and distribution in Kerala. This is especially true when the summer rain disappears, as it did this time.
For many days in the current season, “imports” accounted for more than 80% of the demand met, again revealing the extent to which Kerala relies on costly power purchases and power plants located outside its borders. The company spent ₹12,982.59 crore in 2023–24 and ₹12,749.65 crore in 2024–25 on power purchases.
Internal generation
According to Kerala government data, as on 31 March 2025, the state’s installed capacity – public and private inclusive – was 4412.14 MW, of which hydropower accounted for 2284.42 MW, 51.8%. The state’s solar power capacity, which has gained momentum in recent years, contributed 1519.66 MW (34.4%). Thermal energy accounted for 536.4 MW (12.2%) and wind for 71.53 MW (1.6%). KSEB’s own internal generation was 2409.8 MW, of which 2196.4 MW was hydel, 160 MW thermal, 51.4 MW solar and 2 MW wind energy.
Economic Outlook 2025 states that “growing demand for electricity requires increased generation capacity and reliable energy supplies”. While preparing the 14th Five Year Plan for Kerala (2022–2027), the State Planning Board listed “Resource Constraints in Supporting Renewable Energy Projects”, “Lack of Transparent Policy for Procuring Power from Renewable Energy Sources” and “Delay in Commissioning of Projects” as three “critical gaps/problems in the power sector” during the 13th Plan period. Energy sector observers say these issues remain unresolved.
During the recent power crisis, KSEB was severely reprimanded by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission for its foolish summer management. The commission, headed by TK Jose, a former bureaucrat, noted that emergency situations during the summer months are not a new phenomenon for Kerala. “During the summer months of 2024, the state had gone through a similar situation and it was expected that the KSEB would gain sufficient experience in dealing with such a situation,” the panel said in a recent order.
Factors increasing energy consumption
The country’s energy regulator, which plays an important role in energy, said LPG shortages contributed to increased consumption in the summer of 2026, in addition to climate change factors and infrequent summer showers. “Factors contributing to increased consumption could have been detected well in advance and appropriate information, education and communication measures and advocacy could have been taken to reduce peak consumption,” Mr. Jose wrote in the order.
On its part, KSEB categorically denied any mismanagement or lack of summer planning, especially in the matter of water management in reservoirs. A senior KSEB official said that KSEB currently has several BESS and PSP projects. KSEB’s first major BESS is being developed at Mylatti in Kasaragod district. This project has a capacity of 125 megawatts (MW)/500 megawatt hours (MWh), where MW refers to the maximum amount of energy it can deliver at any given time and MWh, the total amount of energy the system can store, the official said. “Additional BESSs will come up at KSEB substations at Areacode in Malappuram, Sreekantapuram in Alappuzha district, Pothencode in Thiruvananthapuram and Mulleria in Kasaragod. Several PSPs are also in the pipeline,” notes a KSEB official.
Meanwhile, prosumer organizations are calling for more localized solutions. “What we need is transformer-based energy storage. Also, you can’t expect every solar prosumer to buy battery storage, which is unaffordable for the average prosumer unless there’s some subsidy support. They’ve already spent a lot of money on solar units,” points out Jameskutty Thomas.
In terms of energy security, the surging energy demand will certainly present formidable challenges to the state and its new government. The peak electricity demand in Kerala will soon cross 7,000 MW, mainly due to the increase in the use of air conditioners, according to a report ‘Viability Analysis of Energy Storage Systems (ESS) at Sub-National Level’ by EMC – Kerala. It says electric cars, induction cookers and air conditioners would increase energy use by 339 mu, 340 mu and 1208 mu per power system, respectively. Having the infrastructure to meet the emerging needs would prove to be a major challenge.
