Trilok Chand Sharma
The present power scenario in the U.T. of J&K is now becoming restive as people are facing peak demand deficit like in most of the states though mostly in North & Central India .The arrival of early heat wave and hottest March in around 122 years has most probably led to “switching on” of Air Conditioners in homes and in industries as well. The rise in demand started and peaked in late March itself which is unusual. India is currently having 380 GW installed capacity with ability to meet 205 GW peak demand and statistics show that nations peak hour power demand grew most since 1994 which is attributed to the rural household electrification under Saubhagya and urban infrastructure up gradation under IPDS and PMDP .These up gradation works have contributed to reliable quality supply with less load shedding thereby effecting ” power demand growth’ up by around 8-10% .The pick up in industrial activity too has contributed to peak demand growth. It is here where the power planners have complacently miscalculated the growth in consumer load due to improved reliable power supply over the last two years. At present we are getting 1900MWs of power against requirement of 3200MWs and the shortage of 1300MWs is going to take some catching.
We have around 173 thermal power plants in the country which are supervised by central Electricity Authority and are coal based. The coal stocks in around 100 plants have below 25 % of the required critical stock. The shortage is because of increase in average load demand as elucidated above and despite the Government doing all efforts to shore up imported coal stocks yet high price is making it difficult due to global scenario arising out of Russia -Ukraine war. Currently around 140 power plants are facing coal shortage to ramp up power output despite the fact that as against 1.43 MTs coal generation per day in 2021 we have hit around 1.64 MTs coal production per day. The plant load factor too has touched around 70.7% .The rise in peak demand coupled with increased economic activity and an early arrival of heat wave with an over month long dry spell created this peak power deficit scenario and may be this could have been predicted earlier with more thrust on capacity addition of existing thermal plants .The States have started utilizing the idle and under utilized coal & gas plants to ramp up generation to meet even base load demand. Similarly we too have a gas plant at Pampore having an installed capacity of 175 MW which could salvage the worsening power deficit situation.
The situation offers an opportunity to revisit the issue of commercialization of coal India limited to boost domestic coal generation. The focus again has to be on generation sector with ability to supply peak demand which is slated to go beyond 205 GWs. With self reliance imminent in power generation in next 4-5 years in the UT with up coming Hydro Power Projects, we need to avoid such situation where demand supply gap is huge by encouraging use of solar roof tops and stand alone Micro hydel projects in rural areas where the potential is plenty to relieve the peak demand dependence on local grids. As a society we also have to remember that once our former Prime Ministers Lal Bahadur Shastri during 1964 had appealed countrymen to miss a meal at least in a week to tide over shortage of food grains in the country and similarly we can restrict our peak load for sometime to assist the government in its grapple with present power scenario as they say ” All stars are born in the dark and all darkness dies in the light”.
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