Rajan Gandhi
Jammu and Kashmir has abundant water resources which no other state/UT has in India. Despite this vast unmatched potential, Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan and Kashmir centric policies played the spoil sport as such Jammu and Kashmir has never been able to be self reliant in power till date and further no scope in future also.
History
Our visionary Maharaja Hari Singh planned and gave Jammu and Kashmir first power plant in 1905 at Mohra, only second in India after Mysore and second power plant in June 1955 at Ganderbal. In 1954 Jammu got 66 KV line on wooden poles from Pathankote to Canal substation. In 1962 new transmission line from Samba to Gladni line commissioned, Rajouri got Mini Hydel project and in 1965 Bhaderwah also got Mini Hydel project. In 1969-70 three units of Kalakote, from 1971 to 1975 Chenani power plant and Upper Sindh-I got operational and Jammu and Kashmir Electricity Board in pursuance of J&K Electricity Supply Act 1971 was established. At this juncture Jammu had surplus electricity as such interconnection of Kashmir and Jammu through 132 KV Udhampur- Srinagar Double Circuit Line was done, one circuit overhead crossing at Banihal Tunnel and 2nd through Banihal Tunnel. In 1978 Lower Jhelum and eventually in 1987 Salal HEP got commissioned, 480 MW Uri-1 got commissioned in 1997. Upper Sindh HEP-II of 105 MW also got commissioned at Kangan. Year 2007-08 were special as first ever Tariff Order for electricity was issued, J&K PDD launched its website, 390 MW Dulhasti Power Plant,450 MW Baglihar HEP got commissioned, computerized billing of consumers of Jammu and Srinagar city completed. 120 MW SEWA II on Ravi Basin got commissioned in 2010, 330 MW Kishanganga Hydro Power project got commissioned in 2018, more followed and many are in pipeline.
Present power crisis is not one odd day story but systematic failures at different levels to script this present day flop show year after year with no lessons learnt.
Capacity Augmentation
Government hired retired engineers as Chairman/MD with huge salaries beyond imagination to get unprecedented capacity addition at Grid Stations of Pounichak, Cheshmashahi , Draba, Khrew (Khanmoh) , Miran Sahib, Kathua, Janipur, Magam, Hiranagar-Battal Manwal Transmission Line, Grid Sub-Station Udhampur, Sidhra-II, LILO arrangement of 220KV Hiranagar-Bishnah Line, Grid Station Barn , Gladni, Canal, all stand augmented but no power to distribute.
Unbundling PDD
Meanwhile State Administrative Council Decision No 258/22/2019 dated 22.10.2019 followed by Govt Order No:191-PDD of 2019 dated 23.10.2019, JKPDD was unbundled and corporatized into 5 companies namely J&K Power Corporation Ltd (JKPCL), J&K Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. (JKPTCL), Jammu Power Distribution Corporation Ltd. (JPDCL), Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Ltd. (KPDCL) and Ladakh Power Corporation Ltd (LPCL) but with least coordination.
Staff shortage
Every grid station/ substation and transmission lines have been augmented but staff recruited is almost 50% of strength sanctioned on the basis of 1985 report, as such it is virtually impossible to operate and maintain. What is more demoralizing and matter of serious concern that in newly formed Corporations, numerous Divisions and Sub Divisions are headless for months. Hundreds of posts of JE and AE are lying vacant with some AEs holding three charges at a time, additional charge is the rule of the day which substantially results in critical decisions being deferred and no timely corrective measures and in the absence of timely promotions, further complicated by privatization effort by Government which has left 16,000 plus permanent and 12000 daily wagers completely demoralized and clueless. Recent strike by employees resulting total collapse and chaos to the extent that Army had to be called to manage things is a testimony that all is not well and policies adopted by administration are neither in the interest of public nor employees.
Chenab Valley Projects Corporation Experiment
Chenab Valley Projects Corporation was created in 2011 to expedite Chenab basin projects with NHPC(49%) , JKSPDC (49%) and PTC (2%) as main stake holders, but Ministry of Power vide its letter dated May 12, 2021 approved competent authority for taking over of 2% equity of PTC India Limited (PTC) thus NHPC becoming majority stake holder and now with passage of time all major posts are being held by NHPC officials only thereby overlooking UT interests. Even contracts awarded are under CBI investigations.
Least benefit from new announced projects
Government of UT of J&K extended exemption from levy of Water Usage Charges for 10 years after commissioning of the project, reimbursement of State’s share of GST and waiver of free power @2% per year in a decremental manner i.e. free power to the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir would be 2% in the 1st year after commissioning of Project and thereafter shall increase @2% per year and shall be 12% from 6th year onwards. This situation becomes more complicated with annual load increase of around 6% to 7 % which makes J&K’s 12 % share from Central pool generation minuscule as compared to consumption as such Jammu-Kashmir will remain power deficient even after commissioning of all the announced power projects.
Power Generation issues
Right now Jammu and Kashmir have State Sector generation from Kashmir’s Jhelum basin 254.1 MW, Indus Basin 14.56 MW and Jammu’s Chenab Basin generates 934.3 MW, Ravi basin 9 MW. But right now due to low water discharge in rivers State sector generation is 476 MW only against total generation capacity of 1212 MW and Central sector projects generating only 1371 MW against capacity of 2009 MW which means Jammu and Kashmir getting only @ 12% of 1371 MW= 165 MW only thus collective 475 MW + 165 MW = 640 MW against a peak demand of Jammu 1300 MW + Kashmir 1700 MW= 3000 MW , thus a shortfall of 2360 MW right now and at a prevalent rate of Rs12/unit, local administration is unable to purchase electricity from National Grid with the result unprecedented power cuts never seen in the history of UT. With no Plan B, clueless administration right now is just mute spectator hoping against hope that things will improve automatically with the passage of time.
Delay in Projects implementation
CAG report for Lower Kalnai Hydel Electric Project (LKHEP) itself explains the sorry state of affairs. The State Government granted (August 2013) approval for Design, Engineering and Commissioning of 48 MW Kalnai HEP with an estimated cost of Rs576.87 crores to be completed within 48 months by September 2017 from the date of award of contract but the contract agreement was signed seven and a half months later instead of standard 30 days. Work came to a standstill and the management took no decision for more than one year to either terminate the contract or extend it till June 2019 when SAC ultimately terminated the contract and project remains incomplete. This is not one odd case as Dul Hasti and Baglihar projects had faced same fate resulting non completion for years causing manifold cost escalations and avoidable delay. Even new projects announced are stuck up for more than a decade due to various clearances.
Distribution, metering and revenue woes
A peek into power purchased, distributed and revenue collected by JPDCL and KPCL reveals the true state of affairs. JPDCL is operating right now with a billing percentage of 62% with a revenue collection efficiency of 76% of and AT&C losses of 52% whereas Kashmir’s KPDCL has a billing percentage of only 36% and very high AT&T losses of 70%, totally against the national average for AT&T losses. By March 2022, JPDCL recovered Rs1696 crores for 6990 Million units consumed whereas KPDCL recovered only Rs1290 crores for 11000 Million units consumed, an unacceptable gap of 406 crores with no explanation or accountability. Main reason being non metering resulting flat rate consumption which means consumers in Kashmir are least bothered about switching off gadgets resulting unnecessary load which is clearly visible with daily load difference between JPDCL and KPDCL. Despite all these facts and figures available no corrective action is being taken neither at local administration level nor at Central government level with the result genuine bill payer public have been consistently suffering immensely. JPDCL performance is far more better than their counterpart KPDCL.
Flop R-APDRP by IRCON
Under the garb of Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme undertaken by IRCON total chaos happened where ever implemented, allegations of substandard material, not adhering to standard specifications surfaced. PDD officials were neither part of allocation of work nor it’s installation or maintenance. Who were the beneficiary of this flop show?
Power tariff and metering
The existing tariff structure for the domestic consumers for the first 100 units tariff is charged at Rs 1.69/unit, subsequent 100 units Rs2.20/ unit and maximum if the consumption is beyond 400 units @ Rs 3.52. No power tariff revision since 2016-17. Recent allocation of new Smart Meters is also bewildering as Jammu got issued 38635 units of smart meters of which they installed 26967 units whereas Kashmir was issued less than half 15350 units and installed 14861. Instead of metering unmetered area decision of administration to meter fourth time same Jammu localities shows no intent to achieve 100% metering target with the result recurring expenses but no substantial increase in revenue as majority (64%) in Kashmir and 38% in Jammu Division are still unmetered.
Crores pending with Government departments
Though private public has substantially cleared it’s dues from time to time but various Government departments have outstanding of crores as electricity dues. Power department is neither able to recover these dues nor cut their power supplies to at least safeguard further losses.
Cascading effects of power crisis
What’s happening right now in UT’s power sector has direct effect on tourism, industry, students, business, patients , official work. Hesitant new investor, virtually collapse of water supply in peak summer days as almost all pumping stations have no special power lines. Field staff of Power corporations are facing the wrath of public whereas officers are cooling their heels in AC offices. A government which cannot foresee and plan imminent power crisis year after year expect thousands of crores worth industrial investment.
Conclusion
Instead of putting all the blame on employees Administration should introspect and acknowledge what went wrong. Where is the equal distribution of power, revenue collection, smart meter installation or overall metering? Despite par below performance in metering, billing and revenue collection, still KPDCL gets almost double the power allocated as compared to Jammu share. Government is shying away from fixing responsibility and instilling accountability of officers in charge. All carrots no stick will not work as Cancer cannot be cured merely with Crocin. Immediate harsh measures have to be taken at the earliest by issuing white paper on Power Crisis with increase of share of UT power in new power projects from first year of commissioning. No car can run for long with a punctured tyre. Jammu cannot be made to suffer at the cost of Kashmir. With thousands of crores pending to Central Public Sector Undertakings, Government cannot run power on charities as year after year shortfall of revenue collection is totally unacceptable. Make electricity purchases of both Kashmir and Jammu division separate, collect the revenue and purchase electricity model. Sooner they do better it will be.
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