Union Minister of State for Power KC Venugopal said that top priority would be given for construction of thermal power project at Cheemeni in Kasargod as coal block is already alloted to Kerala. Speaking to reporters at Thiruvananthapuram on 12-06-2011, Venugopal said that talks would be held with Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh, who would be reaching the capital city , on issues including Athirappilly project.

Minister said that increasing power purchase costs are major concern for Kerala as 822MU are bought from other states out of total consumption of  1661MU. New power projects are badly needed here and consensus should be reached for construction of power projects in Kerala against the backdrop of the huge gap that is likely to come about in the availability of power.

The State had nothing to contribute to the proposed plan to increase power production to over 80,000 MW during the 12th Plan period. The State would need 3,740 MW of power by 2017, and this was projected to go up to 6,000 MW by 2021. It was high time the State made efforts to meet this demand. It should also begin efforts to establish gas-based plans taking into account the availability of natural gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin, he said.

163MW electricity will be obtained from Athirappilly Hydro Electric project. The government is aiming to produce 1310MW electricity from the Cheemeni thermal power plant.