HM Desk
People of J&K are being subjected to scheduled and unscheduled power cuts in most of the areas. Moreover, the Government is finding it difficult to purchase additional power from the Northern Grid to meet the requirement of the consumers because of high cost.
Jammu province there is requirement of 1100 to 1200 Mega Watts of electricity to provide uninterrupted power supply to the consumers but at present there is shortfall of 450 to 500 Mega Watts mainly because of zero generation from Stage-II of Baglihar Hydroelectric Project.
No doubt Stage-II of Baglihar Hydroelectric Project stops electricity generation from ending September or first week of October every year but this year there is no generation even from middle of September because of prolonged dry spell and subsequent very less discharge in Chenab river.
Due to this there is shortfall of 450 Mega Watts of electricity from this project resulting into prevailing power crisis. Similarly, there is shortage of 450 to 500 Mega Watts of electricity in Kashmir province as power generation from hydroelectric projects on Jhelum river has come down drastically because of prolonged dry spell leading to reduction in water level in most of the water bodies.
Due to shortage of around 1000 Mega Watts of electricity people are suffering a lot as Jammu Power Distribution Corporation Limited (JPDCL) and Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL) are resorting to power curtailments after regular intervals.
The Government is finding it difficult to purchase additional power from the Northern Grid mainly because of high cost as majority of the hydroelectric power projects in the country are generating less electricity at present because of less discharge in the rivers the cost of generation has gone up considerably.
PDD is having no other option but to resort to power curtailments in phased manner keeping in view the prevailing crisis.
