Jammu and Kashmir has purchased power worth Rs 4782.36 crores up to January during current financial year of 2014-15 from Central Public Sector Undertaking (CPSUs) and Power Development Corporation. Of this, the Government is yet to pay Rs 4163 crores.
This was revealed by Finance Minister Dr Haseeb Drabu in separate power budget presented in the Legislative Assembly today.
The practice of presenting separate power budget was initiated during PDP-Congress coalition Government but was abandoned by former Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather during NC-Congress coalition Government. Drabu revived the practice by presenting a separate power budget today along with the general budget.
As against Rs 4782.36 crores worth power purchase, the Government might end up with revenue worth just Rs 1800 crores approximately. Till February 2015, the budget revealed, the Power Development Department had realized revenue worth Rs 1527.67 crores only as against the target of Rs 3508.62 crores.
According to the budgetary figures, the Government has purchased power worth Rs 4782.36 crores this year till January including Rs 4315.36 crores from CPSUs and Rs 466.83 from PDC. Of this, the Government was yet to pay Rs 4163 crores to the CPSUs and PDC from whom the power had been purchased.
“The actual power purchase liability of the PDD is Rs 6266.13 crores. However, if proposed adjustment of Rs 2102.23 crore against plan grants to JKSPDC is reduced, then power purchase liability of the Department will come up to Rs 4163.90 crores,’’ the budget said.
The budget provides for meeting power purchase bill and liabilities in the financial year of 2015-16 but didn’t spell out any measures as to how the widening gap between revenue realization and power purchase will be met in just one year. The Government said the revenue recovery has been badly hit by devastating floods of September 2014.
Other reasons the Government gave for gap between revenue realization and power purchase bill were low tariff for sale of power, high Transmission and Distribution losses, uncontrolled and unaccounted consumption of power beyond agreemented load by the consumers as most of the installations (post-floods) were un-metered, consumption of power without registered connections by non camp temporary installations of security forces, non-realization of charges on energy consumed in migrant camps, and electricity dues from the State Government departments.
The budget projected aggregate Transmission and Distribution (T&D) losses for 2014-15 at 43.7 per cent and for 2015-16 at 42.2 per cent.
The State would need 11,303 MUs energy for 2015-16 as against 13,900 MUs for current year.
The budget proposed that the State Government would address the bottlenecks in hydel power generation projects, for which identified potential in the state is to the tune of 20,000 MW.
“The Government would address the bottlenecks in hydel generation projects of different capacities for which identified potential in the State is of the order of 20000 Mega watts,” Drabu said in the budget.
He termed the separate power sector budget for the State from 2015-16 a landmark initiative of the new Government.
He said, “The reasons are mainly three fold. First, sustainable development of the energy resources coupled with reforms in the power sector in a definite time frame.
“Second, supply of 24×7 quality, reliable and affordable power to all domestic, commercial and industrial consumers.
“Third, which is structurally intertwined with the reforms, is containment of our fiscal deficit and unleashing of a new era of development.”
He said that solar power projects in Ladakh within the scope of 7500 Mega Watts (MW) earmarked by the Central Government would be developed by the Power Development Department within the framework articulated by the Central Government.
He also highlighted the “considerable work” done in the power sector in the past five decades and said that the machines of the old power houses have outlived their lives in most of the stations and require renovation and modernization.
Introducing the roadmaps for the Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation, Drabu said that as per the load projection by the 18th electric power survey of India Jammu and Kashmir shall have a peak load of 4217 MWs in 2021-22 with an energy requirement of 21884 million units.
“The execution of projects proposed in the roadmap entails an investment of more than Rs 1 lakh crore in all sectors. The projects in the State sector including joint venture projects would need an investment of about Rs 60,000 crore,” he said.
“Based on an equity: debt ratio of 30:70, there would an equity requirement of Rs 18,000 crore and a debt of Rs 42,000 crore during the coming decade”, the Finance Minister said.
He said that the Power Development Department (PDD) has maintainable assets valued at about Rs 7000 crore including about 48000 transformers across the State.
He said that as per the census of 2010-11, the total number of households in the State were 20, 15,088 out of which 17, 53,201 households avail electricity,
“However, 15,72,815 consumers are registered with the PDD ending 2013-14. To increase the revenue and meet out the deficit, all the illegal households consuming power without department’s knowledge are being identified, booked and brought under the department’s registration network,” Drabu said.
“Power sector development holds the key to fiscal autonomy of our State. Our Government accords the top most priority to the Power sector. We want to address the issues of the sector in their full spectrum. It may sound a bit alarmist but the precarious state of affairs in respect of gap between power purchase and actual revenue realization cannot be allowed to continue. It is the duty of the Government to ensure supply of power, but it is also the obligation of the people to pay for power. The Government proposes to tackle the formidable gap between power purchase and revenue realization through different measures, apart from provisioning of resources for purchase of power,” Drabu said.
He added that Jammu and Kashmir is bestowed with significant hydro electric power and solar energy potential. “When exploited fully, it will provide a strong impetus for the growth of the economy of J&K. Development of this potential would need huge resources, technical expertise, reforms, proper regulation and energy management.”
“JKSPDC can make bankable projects based on this resource and by going public. Such models of faster development where people of the State could hold direct stake in the corporate entities through market mechanism would be explored as an option for faster development of hydel power. The Government would consider offering some percentage of State Government share in JKSPDC to stakeholders and list JKSPDC shares in the stock market. Option of setting up of a J&K Power Finance Corporation would also be explored,” Drabu said.
He said the solar power projects in Ladakh within the scope of 7500 MWs earmarked by the Central Government would be developed by the Power Development Department within the framework articulated by the Central Government, while keeping in mind the interests of stake-holders. “The Government would explore the option of bundling of costlier solar power with cheaper thermal power from the Central Government pool to make solar power projects financially viable.”
“The budget provides for State share in Joint Venture power generation projects of different types namely, hydel, coal based thermal and solar. It provides for conduct of preliminary work for the proposed coal block in Madhya Pradesh and the associated pit-head thermal power plant. Preliminary work on the Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPP) to be negotiated with the Central Government would be undertaken. The Government would actively pursue transfer of hydel power projects from NHPC and this budget provides funds for meeting the operation and maintenance cost of such power projects to be transferred from NHPC,” the Finance Minister said.
Drabu said as per the load projection/forecast 18th Electric Power Survey of India report published by the Ministry of Power, J&K shall have a peak load of 4217 MW in 2021-22 with an energy requirement of 21884 MUs. In this backdrop, JKSPDC has drawn up a roadmap for systematic capacity addition in the 12th/13th plan which will not only bridge the supply demand gap but turn the state into an energy surplus state thus reaping the dividends of its large hydel potential.
“The execution of the projects proposed in the roadmap entails an investment of more than Rupees one lakh crore in all sectors, namely State, Central, Joint Venture and Private. The projects in the State Sector including JV projects would need an investment of about Rs 60,000 crore. Based on an equity : debt ratio of 30:70 there would an equity requirement of Rs 18000 crore and a debt of Rs 42000 crore during the coming decade,” Drabu said.
He said the JKSPDC has been allocated coal block (Kudnali Laburi in Odisha) jointly with NTPC. It has an allocated geological reserve of 130 and 266 Million Metric Tonnes between JKSPDC and NTPC respectively. Pursuant to the decision of its Board of Directors, JKSPDC engaged M/s SBICAPS as consultant to carry out viability and sensitivity analysis of various options and advise on the way forward essentially with regard to location of the end use plant.
“SBICAPS has furnished a report which states that with a coal availability of 3.40 million tonnes per annum (assuming that extractable coal reserves would be 60-70 % of geological reserve of 130 MT for 25 years), the installed capacity works out to 660 MWs (supercritical unit). Net financial impact by locating the project in J&K vis-a-vis in Odisha is estimated to be Rs 700 crore per annum which translates to over Rs 18000 crore over the lifetime of the project. JKSPDCL is going to enter into JV arrangement with NTPC for both coal mining and power generation,” the Finance Minister said.
Transformation capacity of 3730 MVA was available at 220kV level and 4163MVA at 132kV level by the end of year 2013-14. The infrastructure available to meet the transmission of estimated demand at the end of 12th plan is not adequate enough in the State. There is an urgent need to upgrade the Transmission and Distribution infrastructure so that future needs of T&D can be fulfilled effectively. In the wake of thrust on generation of more and more power in the State by undertaking the fresh projects, the need for such T&D network needs immediate attention. The infrastructure capacity required at 220/132kV level to meet the anticipated peak demand is 5160 MVA ending 2016-17, there will be a gap of 1430 MVA at the end of 12th five year plan which is to be met out in phased manner. Likewise, the estimated requirement of transformation capacity at 132/66-33kV level at the end of 12th plan will be 6192.00 MVA leaving a gap of 2029MVA and at 66-33/11kV level will be 7431 MVA leaving a gap of 2539.70MVA and at 11-6.6/0.4kV will be 8917 MVA leaving a gap of 3094.36 MVA which is to be provided in phased manner during the 12th plan.
“Around 9000 MWs capacity generation is under execution under state sector, central sector, IPP mode and Joint Venture out of which around 2100 MW is scheduled to come up by the end of 12th five year plan. The state has to prepare evacuation system for this generation capacity addition. Considering the roadmap of JKSPDC for state, IPP and JV projects, approximately Rs 2500 crore would be required for evacuation of power,’’ the Finance Minister said.
He said it was also required that for evacuation of Ladakh based solar and hydel power, additional transmission lines would be required.
“The ongoing 220KV Srinagar-Leh Transmission line would be highly inadequate. For the 7500MW Solar projects, approximately Rs 10000 crore may be involved, considering the fact no feasibility study has been taken up yet. Further, the requirement of the transmission sector for the entire State from the 24×7 Power For All perspective works out to approximately Rs 4054 crore. The total perspective plan for Transmission sector, thus would be of the order of Rs 16554 (Rs 2500+ Rs 10000 + Rs 4054) crore,” Drabu said.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel