Power breakdowns

One issue with which the State has been grappling for decades at end but without any concrete result is recurrent power breakdowns. The functioning of power houses and their intermittent breakdowns have more often than not caused serious problem to the Government and to the people. The common lament is that despite having sufficient water resources and technology as well as manpower why cannot the state become self sufficient in power generation. This subject has been debated very widely in the public dolman and in the media. A plethora of reasons has been offered to tell people that most of the causes of power breakdown are natural and beyond human control. This is a debatable issue. Sometimes political reasons are attributed to the phenomenon and at other times financial constraints are stated as the real woe of power generation. At one point the Government propagated that it was not getting its full share from the projects handed over to NHPC and a campaign was launched that it would take back some of the major power generating projects from the NHPC and manage them through its own resources. There are many stories but the reality on the ground is that acute shortage of power continues in the state, there are regular power cuts and many areas are without power. The situation has not improved in any way.
Taking note of this situation, State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) has issued a directive to the Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Commission (JKSPDC) to (a) conduct performance audit of all power stations in the state, and (b) report on major breakdowns in the past 2 years, and action taken on them. The Corporation has been asked to submit this report within 10 months. Obviously the Commission would like to focus on the performance and find out where the discrepancy is and how that can be removed. Secondly it would also like to know why there is delay in fixing the problems once a major breakdown happens.  On the face of it, one might feel that this is a right step in right direction and the entire question of power generation to power transmission would come under discussion. But before we pin many hopes to this decision of the Commission, let us examine what was the fate of similar action undertaken by the Commission previously and how did the Corporation respond. A similar directive was issued by the SERC to the JKSPDC last year. The Corporation passed on the buck to AHEC, IIT Roorkie to take up the performance audit of all its stations.
However, the AHEC, IIT Roorkie wanted to know about the exact nature of performance audit/scope of work required to be undertaken. Instead of responding to the question, JKSPDC sought SERC’s advice on the issue and the Commission in the month of October last year made available a copy of the format for undertaking proposed performance testing of all the small hydro electric power stations. But till date no further progress has been made by the SPDC in this regard.
This shows that the JKSPDC has been evading action by passing the buck to one or the other source despite the fact that it has the competent expertise to do so. This is only a delaying tactics and avoiding response to a particular decision which the Commission had taken to go to the roots of the problem. Corporation is responsible for regular supply and maintenance of electric power in the State. But as we see, it is avoiding actions suggested by the Commission to know the causes of faulty performance of existing power houses and the reasons why power breakdown happen. More importantly it wants to know what should be done to stop power breakdowns and if it happens how quickly equipment can be obtained to restore their functioning. Consumers have been making regular complaints against the Corporation for its inability to meet their requirements. This resulted in many quarters suggesting the Government to bring about meaningful reforms in the JKSPDC and streamline its functioning. We would also suggest that the Government has a look at the entire structure, functioning and delivery system of the Corporation and devise mechanism to make it an efficient and responsive undertaking that can deliver goods. The people of the State are fed up with its antics and it must change sooner than later.

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