Frequent outages in T&D network despite huge investment
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 24: The prevailing power crisis will continue to trouble people across Jammu region during the current summer season as the Government has failed to evolve any mechanism for timely clearance of power purchase bills and Power Trading Corporation (PTC) is reluctant to help the State due to inordinate delay in payment of Rs 450 crore.
Moreover, the transmission and distribution network of the Power Development Department is witnessing frequent outages although huge investment has been made for improvement under numerous schemes of the Union Government.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that Power Trading Corporation, which undertakes trading of power generated from large power projects as well as short term trading arising as a result of supply and demand mismatches, has not been paid even single penny during the current financial year so far despite the fact that it has purchased Rs 450 crore worth power on behalf of Power Development Department of Jammu and Kashmir to meet the demand of consumers.
In the month of April this year, an amount of Rs 2349 crore was released to the Power Development Department by the State Government to clear the outstanding power purchase bills of different entities. The PDD made payments to several entities including Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation but Rs 450 crore bill of Power Trading Corporation has remained outstanding till date.
The Power Trading Corporation dashed a number of communications to the Power Development Department for clearance of this bill but no seriousness was shown by the State as a result of which the Corporation has stopped making further purchase of power for J&K, sources said, adding the Corporation had even given the option of releasing Rs 300 crore immediately and rest of the amount at later stage but State failed to release even this amount leading to shortfall of about 1000 Mega Watts of electricity that too during the peak summer season.
Disclosing that decline in power generation from both the stages of Baglihar Hydroelectric Project due to less discharge in River Chenab is compounding the problem, sources said, “at present both the stages of Baglihar Project are generating only 450 Mega Watt of electricity out of which 220 Mega Watt is being given to the Power Development Department and rest of the power is being sold to West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh as per the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)”.
It is pertinent to mention here that from Stage-I of Baglihar Hydroelectric Project State is entitled to get 40% of the generated power while as from Stage-II the State is supposed to get 50% of the generated power and decline in generation during current summer has complicated the situation especially at a time when PTC has shown reluctance to help the State.
“It is a matter of serious concern that despite facing such a situation in the past a number of times the Government has failed to evolve any mechanism for timely clearance of power purchase bills”, sources said, adding “in view of limited resources of the State, huge gap between expenditure on power purchase and revenue generation and huge liability towards Power Trading Corporation the prevailing power crisis will continue to trouble people particularly across Jammu region during the current summer season”.
Moreover, the transmission and distribution network of the Power Development Department is witnessing frequent outages despite huge investment in upgradation and modernization of the system with the financial assistance from Union Government under different schemes of the power sector, sources regretted.
“Every day one or the other area is subjected to prolonged power cuts because of sudden snags in the transmission and distribution system and this is the clear indication that huge investment under Centrally Sponsored Schemes has failed to achieve the intended target and provide respite to the people”, sources said, adding “moreover, there is no synergy between Power Development Department and IRCON, which has constructed several new receiving stations and carried out other upgradation and modernization works”.
“While IRCON accuses Power Development Department of not timely informing about the snags the latter states that company has the habit of adopting dilly-dallying approach”, sources said, adding “as Government has failed to ensure proper coordination between IRCON and PDD the people are being subjected to inconvenience frequently”.
When contacted, Minister for Power Sunil Sharma confirmed that State has failed to timely clear Rs 450 crore power purchase bill of Power Trading Corporation thus leading to prevailing crisis, “We have arranged around Rs 100 crore for immediate payment to the Corporation and hopefully the situation will improve in a day or two”, he added.
However, sources said, “unless a proper mechanism is evolved for timely clearance of power purchase bills of different entities the State will continue to experience prevailing situation in near future”.
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