J&K Admin approves  purchase of 500 MW of power to meet winter demand

JAMMU, NOV 26: J&K government’s Administrative Council (AC) which met here under the chairmanship of the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, gave its approval for purchase of additional energy of 500 MW offirm power from Ministry of Power (MOP)to meetBase Load power requirement of the UT.

Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretaryand Dr. Mandeep Kumar Bhandari,Principal Secretary to Lieutenant Governor attended the meeting.

The AC assents for allocation of additional 500 MW offirm power from MOP in B(v) mode(procurement being done by PFC)to meetBase Load power requirement essentiallyrequired to meet the winter demand.
The availability inwinter reduces due to high proportion of hydropower in the UT. In order to bridge this gapbetween demand and availability of power during winter months AC approved signing of fresh Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)by J&K Power Corporation Limited (JKPCL) with NTPC regarding Singrauli-III run by NTPC.

This will subside the energy demand in J&Kwhich is increasing at a CAGR of 10%. Singrauli-II being athermal power station is a must run station, due to which itspower supports J&K’s power requirement during winter whenthe generation from hydro generators of ISGSreduces to150-300 MW only i.e. a reduction of 70-90% of summergeneration.

As such, it will increase its availability by signingnew Power Purchase Agreement of JKPCL with NTPCregarding Singrauli-III which would help the UT in tiding over the power shortage faced by it during the lean winter season.