“KASHMIR VALLEY HAVING LOT OF WATER RESOURCES THEN WHY THERE ARE ELECTRICITY CRISIS” By Nida Fatima

“KASHMIR VALLEY HAVING LOT OF WATER RESOURCES THEN WHY THERE ARE ELECTRICITY CRISIS”

“We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles” Thomas A. Edison

      Electricity is perhaps the most talked issue in J&K. Since early 2000’s, electricity needs has been a mainstay of political parties pitching for development as a means to rise to power.

Hydroelectric projects in J&K:-

S.NO     NAME                            DISTRICT                  RIVER

01    Baglihar stage-I                      Doda                            Chenab

02    Chenani                              Ladder                            River Tawi

03    Chenani-III                        Ladder                             River Tawi

04    Cheetak                       Village,Minji                         River Tawi

05    Dulhasti                              Doda                               Suru

06    Ganderbal                       Ganderbal                       Sindh Nala

07     Iqbal                                                                       Wakharong

08   Kishenganga                Kargil/leh                        Kishanganga

09   Lower Jehlum                  Near Warikhah               Jhelum

10  Nimmo- Bozgo                                                               Indus

11  Ranjil Sagar Dam              Pathankot                                Ravi

12    Salal I and II                      Reasi                               Chenab

13    Sewa-II                                   Kathua                            Sewa

14    Sewa-III                                  Kathua                            Ravi

15   Satkna                                                                             Indus

16  Upper Sindh               57 Km from Srinagar              Sindh Nalla

17  Upper sindh-III                                      Sindh  and Wangath Nallah

18  Uri-I                                 8km from Baramullah            Jehlum

19         Uri-II                                        //                                       //

The valley faced crippling power cuts during the winter, with power cuts up to ten hours long becoming part of daily routine. Every October, the J&K administration shuts its offices in the summer capital of Srinagar to move to the winter capital of Jammu, a process called as ”DARBAR MOVE”.

    On October 28, the PDD, which is responsible for transmission and distribution of electric power in state, announced a load shedding schedule for the valley: metered areas of the valley would face at least 21 hours of outages a week, while non-metered areas would see up to 42 hours of power cuts.

    The fact that the power shortages coincide with the darbar move has led to speculation that electricity is being diverted to Jammu region, where it is required by administration. But officials of valley’s power department say there is little truth to this. Kashmir’s power shortages stem  from a host of other factors. They say, including inadequate infrastructure, transmission losses and under- utilization of resources.

   Since most of Kashmir’s large power projects are under the management of National Hydro Electric Power Corporation , the outages at this time of the year reinforce an old grievance that the valley does not have control over its resources. The 21^st state- owned projects have capacity to generate 1,21,196 MW of power, while seven central projects have capacity for 2,009 MW.

  According to state’s 2016 Economic survey report, the state’s peak demand for power has grown by 8% from 2011’12 to 2015/16. As of 2016, three lakh households yet to be electrified.

·       

 ·       Low Supply

 The valley gets most of its power from hydel power projects. With the regions rivers at their lowest ebb in winter, the electricity generation also takes a hit.

   Shehnaz Gani said that at present ,” the generation was about 25% of the capacity”. Last years’s dry spell reduced the level in the state’s rivers ex acerbating the shortage.

  It isn’t as if the state has tapped out its resources: about 84% of total estimated potential from state’s water resources has not yet been harnessed. This seems to have been accompanied by a slow increase in output.

·                 ·   A Political Point

Central to the political rhetoric about power has been the question of who controls the state’s resources. According to state’s survey report, the hydel projects constructed in central sector,” allow the state only 12% of energy actually generated, ever in state sector 450 MW Baglihar hydel project commissioned recently the state has to sell about 50% of energy to outside buyers as a precondition imposed by rendering institutions having its own consumers striving for energy.

   The transfer of projects in central sector would not serve the state well.” It would lose out on revenues. It is not about keeping control over the resources in the disputed state” .

·            ·    The Pakistan Challenge

 The regular impediments caused a tussle between India & Pakistan aver the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), which governs the use of water flowing through J&K between the two countries.

 The state only allows run of river projects on western flowing rivers. Over the years, Pakistan has regularly raised objections on almost all the hydel power projects being established in state. Pakistan claims that the building of large reservoirs for producing electricity would deprive it of its share of water.

·            ·   Other Issues

There are also other power projects that have seen prolonged delays. Most of the power projects in state will exceed their deadlines as these have been regular delays in awarding of the contracts and there is a monitoring of the construction work being done.

   We have to understand setting up these projects is not an easy task. The geography of region is difficult for such construction work and then we also have to deal with the forces of nature.We also don’t have the capital to, but we have to do our best to implement all the projects in the timely manner.