More woes for J&K; to lose 939 MW power from Mon

NTPC issues notice for Rs 1626 Crore pending dues

JAMMU: Already wrestling with the shortage of power, more so in its harsh winters, Jammu and Kashmir may lose supply of almost half of its electricity from the midnight of next Monday, courtesy outstanding power dues of more than Rs 1,600 crore.

The Centre-owned power giant NTPC has decided to regulate power supply to the State from February 18 midnight for not clearing outstanding.

In a notice issued to J&K, the company has said that as much as Rs 1,626.01 crore is due for over 60 days and according to the power regulator CERC's guidelines, generators can serve notice for regulation of power to defaulters.

The NTPC notice said the power would be regulated from 00:00 hours of February 19.

It said: "In case of outstanding dues or in case the required letter of credit or any other agreed payment security mechanism is not maintained as per the agreement, the generating company may serve a notice for regulation of power supply on the defaulting entity, for reducing the drawl schedule."

Against the projected demanded of about 4000 megawatts (MW) of power supply, the state’s current power capacity stands at around 2800 MW out of which around 2000 MW is provided by various projects from Central Sector.

While the state, like other northern States, also gets a share or allocation of energy in any hydro, thermal project or nuclear power project developed by any central generating utility to a certain extent, it purchases the rest of the electricity the cost of which comes out to be Rs 5000 Crore a year.

With NTPC taking a tough stand on Jammu and Kashmir, the state is likely to lose supply of 939.03 megawatts of power supply from thermal giant’s plants including Dadri, Koldam, Farakka, Auraiya, Rihand and Unchahar.

If that happens, the situation is going to turn even worse, considering the winters in the state are yet to go. The energy deficient State of ours has to rely heavily on power purchase to meet its requirement particularly in winters, when its own generation recedes and demand peaks.

NTPC’s decision to regulate power supply has particularly gone against the tall promises and even their realization by the Centre which has funded the state generously in general but more so after 2015.

While it is not very likely that the Governor’s administration would release the outstanding Rs 1600 Crore to NTPC in the next seven days, it can, however, atleast assure the power giant to pay the same.

And that has worked in past, in the case of NTPC.

Only last week, on February 5, the company had also issued similar notices to discoms in Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to regulate power, as the states had as much as Rs 4,138.39 crore outstanding dues for over 60 days.

But those notices were later put in abeyance after assurances to make payments.