Thiruvananthapuram, June 26 (IANS) Those living in Kerala will face 30 minutes of electricity supply cut every day from Friday, a minister said. Making a special statement in the Kerala assembly Thursday, Electricity Minister A.K. Balan said that the government has no option but to introduce power outage for half an hour everyday.

“Every day during peak hours, we require 2,700 MW of electricity but right now we have just 2,200 MW. This shortage can be made up only through load-shedding,” said Balan.

The power cut will take place in a phased manner between 6.30 p.m. to 10.30 p.m.

For the past one week, there were speculations that the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) may announce power outages of one hour during the hours of peak electricity consumption.

The KSEB board at its meeting here Wednesday decided to recommend to teh state government an hour-long power outage. The government opted for half an hour.

Of the total installed power generation capacity of 2,700 MW in the state, hydro-electric power constitutes 1,811 MW. Among the 30 power generating stations in Kerala, 24 are hydro-based, five are run on thermal power and one functions on wind power.

This is the first time since the Left government assumed office in May 2006 that power cuts are being introduced.