Jammu: J&K Power Employees & Engineers Coordination Committee (JKPEECC) on Wednesday urged the Principal Secretary Power Development Department (PDD) to “issue public notice on power shortage.”
JKPEECC, an amalgam comprising various Unions of PDD led by Jaipal Sharma chairman JKPEECC and president DEA, Sachin Tickoo general secretary JKEEGA and convenor PEECC Jammu, in a statement issued to the press, appealed to the government to issue statement about the shortage of the power from the Northern Grid and inability of the power utilities across India to meet the electricity demand of the consumers in the current scenario.
It stated, “The peak demand on a real time basis in Jammu region is 1400 MW and Kashmir region is 1700 MW.
However the power currently available from state sector power projects and central sector power projects in Jammu and Kashmir is around 600 MW and rest of the demand of 2500 MW is to be managed by power purchase from outside the state from Northern Grid.
“Since the power shortage is being felt throughout the country due to which the rate per unit in the market is very high and the sufficient power is not available as per the demand due to which the unscheduled distress curtailments are being enforced as per the State Load Dispatch instructions which are also bound by the Northern region Load dispatch centre directives on overdrawal and low frequency constraints,” JKPEECC said.
It maintained that under the present circumstances all the utilities across India were enforcing forced curtailments and giving wide publicity to the curtailment schedules so that the public was also made aware and prepared for the ongoing crisis.
“Due to lack of awareness and non-existent public relations of the management of the Corporations, the people in J&K are resorting to protest and even assets are being damaged and members of the staff are being manhandled due to unscheduled curtailments. It is therefore the need of the hour to issue public notice and use all forms of print and e- media to issue white paper on the availability and demand of the power. The consumers have the right to know the factual situation and accordingly urgent attention is being sought to the issue,” JKPEECC stated.
On behalf of all the power employees, JKPEECC also appealed to the consumers to bear the “crisis of power shortage which was evolving on daily basis.”
“Every step is being taken to minimize the sufferings of people. The staff is 24×7 available for running the system smoothly within the system constraints of availability of power,” it added.