SRINAGAR : Transfer of power projects from NHPC is an important part of the developmental agenda of the PDP-BJP coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, where an independent consultant committee hired to work out present cost of these projects has submitted its report.
This information was given by Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh, who also holds power portfolio, in the Legislative Assembly.
He said the transfer of power projects is an important part of the developmental agenda of the coalition government. As stated in the Agenda of Alliance, in order to address the real source of J&K’s fiscally autonomous state, the state government will work with the union Government to, inter-alia, explore modalities for transfer of Dulhasti and Uri power projects to J&K as suggested by the Rangarajan Committee Report and Round Table reports.
The Deputy Chief Minister and the Finance minister met Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal on March 16, 2015 formally and have impressed upon the Union Government the need for transfer of power projects to state among other important issues of power sector, he said.
However, to work out the present cost of the power projects of NHPC in the state, an Independent Consultant was hired by the J&K State Power Development Corporation (SPDC) limited and based on the documents available in the public domain like audited balance sheets and Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) orders.
He said the CERC had calculated the present cost of Salal, Uri Ist Duhasti, Uri second, Sewa second, Nimo Bazgo and Chutak HEPs. The report of the consultant is under the examination in the J&K SPDC.
The reply said that the Power Development Department (PDD) has a total 1707639 number of consumers with an agreement load of 2973.849 MW as on March 2016.
He said Jammu has 816163 consumers with agreement load of 1764.44 MW while in the Kashmir valley the number of consumers is 848664 with agreement load of 1172.20 MW.
In Ladakh region, the total number of consumers is 42812, with a load of 37.2 MW, the Minister said in the reply.
Dr Singh said the demand during peak time in the year 2015-16 was 2740 while only 2158 was met and there was deficit of 582 MW which is 21.24 per cent.
This, however, infers that consumers use excessive load for above their agreement load which results in a huge gap between the demand and supply and as a result the department is forces to resort to curtailments.
The reply claimed that the infrastructure capacities available at different voltages levels are sufficient enough to cater to the power demand.
However, keeping in view the future load growth of about 6 per cent each year, the required infrastructure at different voltage levels, to meet the estimated demand at the end of 12th plan shall be provided in a phased manner during the 12 and 13the plan. (AGENCIES)
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