Satheesan and Pinarayi clash over Kerala power deal with GNA Energy

Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan and Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan are locked in a war of words over a short-term deal to buy electricity from a private trader, GNA Energy, with each accusing the other of misleading the public.

Mr. Vijayan alleges that the Chief Minister bypassed the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), the Power Minister and the State’s electricity regulator to approve the GNA offer. He says the KSEB had proposed buying power from Himachal Pradesh instead, an offer that had passed its technical and financial scrutiny, and has asked on what legal basis the Chief Minister chose GNA, whether the board had warned of heavy losses, and whether the regulator had said costlier power was not needed between November 2026 and March 2027. He has also claimed that Kerala faces no real power shortage and called the crisis artificial.

Mr. Satheesan has defended the decision. He says the then chairman and managing director of the KSEB had noted that the GNA proposal “can be considered”, and has challenged Mr. Vijayan to produce documents for his claim that Himachal Pradesh offered power at ₹12.50 a unit.

Neither side’s figures have been independently checked, and no audit or regulatory ruling on the deal has been published.

Why it matters

Kerala generates only about a third of the electricity it uses, mostly from hydel projects, and buys the rest, so the price of purchased power feeds directly into consumers’ bills and the KSEB’s finances. Power deals have divided the two fronts before: in 2023, under the Left government, the regulator cancelled long-term contracts for 465 MW signed in the UDF era, forcing the board to buy costlier power at short notice.

What’s next

The Opposition is expected to raise the deal in the Assembly. The KSEB and the regulator have not commented publicly.