Several reformative measures initiated to transform JK’s power scenario: Dy CM

‘Schemes with an outlay of Rs 4996 cr sanctioned under various programmes for upgrading energy sector’

JAMMU, JANUARY 19: Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh today said the Government has taken several reformative measures for revamping the power infrastructure and to improve the overall power scenario in the State.
As a long term measure to avoid overloading of power infrastructure that leads to frequent power cuts, several schemes with an outlay of Rs 4995. 88 crore have been sanctioned under various centrally sponsored programmes. After the execution of these schemes, the power scenario shall considerably improve and the Department will be able to provide reliable and quality supply to the consumers across the State, he added.
Replying to a question by Sat Paul Sharma, the Deputy Chief Minister said the scheduled power cuts are necessitated due to certain reasons like large gap between the total unrestricted load demand of the consumers and the actual registered load which is supposed to be met by the department. The indiscriminate use of gadgets overloads the power system, especially during the winter in Kashmir and summers in Jammu, he said.
In order to deal with the current on-going un-scheduled/distressed cuts in Kashmir division, the department has taken necessary remedial measures on war footing basis that have considerably helped in streamlining the power schedule and resulting in minimizing the cuts. To give relief to the domestic consumers during the peak hours, the additional two hours curtailment to the industries has been effected, said Dr. Singh.
The State has met a peak load of 2102 MW in summer and 1984 MW in winter of 2016-17, which is about 45% more than the Contract Demand (Agreement Load) after taking diversity factor into account, said the Deputy Chief Minister.
Giving details of availability of energy, and purchased from outside, the Deputy Chief Minister said that current unrestricted requirement of energy in the state is 19000 MUs, while as it was 18000 MUs & 18562 MUs in 2014-15 and 2015-16 respectively. During the year 2014-15, the State had purchased 11481. 232 MUs of energy from outside at a cost of Rs 2927.565 crore, and 2460.245 MUs were generated locally. During the year 2015-16, 11937.459 MUs were purchased from outside at a cost of Rs 2085.721 crore while 2646.492 units were self generated. Similarly, during the current financial year (upto 31 December 2016) 7991.159 MUs were purchased from outside at a cost of Rs 1237. 529 crore and 3512.055 MUs were self generated, said the Deputy Chief Minister.
Giving details of arrears with both private and public consumers during the last two years as well current year (ending November-2016), the Deputy Chief Minister said that in Kashmir Division an amount of Rs 726.32 crore and Rs 249. 49 crore were outstanding with private and public consumers respectively in Kashmir division. During 2015-16, an amount of Rs 777.52 crore and Rs 399.37 crore were arrears with private and public consumers respectively. During the current financial year 947.4 crore and Rs 524.35 crore are outstanding against the private and public consumers of Kashmir province.
In Jammu Division, during 2014-15, an amount of Rs 220.17 crore and Rs 463.79 crore were outstanding against the private and public consumers and in the year 2015-16, Rs 226.52 crore and 629.2 4 crore were the arrears. During the current financial year, the arrear amount is Rs 336.94 and 779.11 crore.
Similarly, in Ladakh Province, during the 2014-15 the arrears were Rs 205.16 crore and Rs 205.86 crore, in 2015-16, Rs 139.12 crore and Rs 198. 52 crore, and during the current financial year an amount of Rs 170.58 crore and Rs 115.8 crore, said the Minister.
Giving details of recovery of electricity fee from the domestic, industrial, government offices etc, the Deputy Chief Minister said that in Kashmir/Ladakh Province an amount of Rs 580.76 crore, Rs 703.07 crore and Rs 245.33 crore were realized during 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 (ending November, 2016) from the domestic, industrial, State and Central Government offices.
In Jammu Province, an amount of Rs 854.65 crore, Rs 889.49 crore and Rs 511.72 crore have been realized from the consumers for the years 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 (ending November, 2016), said Dr. Singh.
Listing the reasons for frequent power cuts in the State, the Deputy Chief Minister said that it is mainly due to uncontrolled use of load by consumers and at times when the aggregate load increases to levels which are beyond the handling capacity of local Grid Station or 33 KV feeding lines or 33/11 KV Receiving Stations or even 11 KV feedings lines. In such circumstances, the department is constrained to enforce unscheduled cuts which become inevitable for ensuring system safety, he said.
“If these unscheduled cuts are not enforced, the vital power equipments like power transformers, switchgear etc may get damaged thereby plunging the entire feeding area in darkness for an unspecified period", said the Deputy Chief Minister.
Elaborating further, the Deputy Chief Minister said that the enforcement drives were revamped during the month of December wherein as many as 7065 inspections were conducted by various enforcement squads and fine to the tune of Rs 136.27 lakh was imposed on the defaulting consumers found indulging in excess/illegal load usage. The Department will also install as many as 50,000 consumer meters under RAPDRP to contain the pilferage of power in Kashmir division, said Dr Singh said.
Hakim Mohammad Yasin, Devinder Rana, Abdul Majid Larmi, Mohammad Ashraf Mir, Kuldeep Raj, Ishfaq Ahmed Sheikh, R S Pathania, Ch. Mohammad Akram, Mohammad Amin Bhat, G M Saroori, Abdul Rahim Rather, Mian Altaf, Syed Altaf Bukhari, Bashir Ahmed Dar, Altaf Ahmed Wani raised the supplementary questions and expressed their concern on the power scenario in their areas.