Administrative Council assents purchase of additional 500 MW of power to meet the winter demand

JAMMU: 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 of firm power from Ministry of Power (MOP) to meet Base Load power requirement of the UT.

Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary and 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 essentially required to meet the winter demand.

The availability in winter reduces due to high proportion of hydropower in the UT. In order to bridge this gap between 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&K which is increasing at a CAGR of 10%. Singrauli-II being a thermal power station is a must run station, due to which its power supports J&K’s power requirement during winter when the generation from hydro generators of ISGS reduces to 150-300 MW only i.e. a reduction of 70-90% of summer generation.

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