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Western Himalaya Kashmir

   

COD KASHMIR

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In response to the growing opposition to large dams, the Commission on Dams (COD) was established by the eIEN South Asia Western Himalaya Kashmir in 2005. The Commission came into existance from a variety of backgrounds, representing a broad spectrum of interests – including governments and non–governmental organisations, grassroots people's movements and  academicians .The world economy has reached a point where it needed to manufacture needs and desires and raise the level of construction activities so that the capitalist class could continue accumulating capital; the system had reached a point where the appetites of capitalists exceeded the demand.
 

 

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COD KASHMIR Reports

 

Rationale for Jammu & Kashmir State Power Sector

Resettlement and rehabilitation: Moving from an inadequate policy to a bad one

Hydropower: Clean Energy or Destroyer?

Baglihar Face of the Controversial Dam

Sawalkot Hydropower Project EIA Statement yet to be disseminated

Kishenganga HPP ; will driving out the more than 25,000 Dard Shin people

 

Rationale for Jammu & Kashmir

State Power Sector

 

Rationale for Jammu & Kashmir State Power Sector scoring Executive Summary A score of 32.5 has been assigned to the power sector in Jammu & Kashmir. The distribution of marks against the parameters is as follows:

 

State Government Related Parameters 20.0 8.5
SERC Related Parameters 20.0 0.0
Business Risk Analysis

Generation

T&D

25.0

6.0

19.0

6.5

3.5

3.0

Financial Risk Analysis 30.0 16.5
Others 5 5.0
Total 100.0 32.5


The State Government
Key Positives


Government of J&K (GoJK) has been consistently disbursing above 15% of its
expenditure on the revenue account to the Power Development Department (PDD). This expenditure is net of the revenues GoJK realizes through sale of Power. This high ratio (AP spends about 9.5% of revenue expenditure on the energy account) highlights the importance of PDD. GoJK has been providing the finances that PDD requires for funding the revenue gap. Finally, the special category status of J&K assists the PDD in obtaining concessions on loans and schemes.

 

Areas of Improvement


The unbundling of the PDD into corporatized transmission and distribution entities is an area of concern. The operationalization of ERC is also essential to make the PDD more accountable and efficient.


ERC Areas of Improvement


In the MoU signed with Government of India, the ERC was to be made operational by July 2002. However there has been slippage on this target by a few months. Operational Parameters (Generation, Transmission and Distribution)

 

Key Positives


J&K’s hydel plants show a superior performance on auxiliary consumption and availability factor parameters. This good performance on these parameters is expected to continue.

Areas on Improvement


A main factor behind PDD’s low recovery of power purchase costs is its low metering levels at 10%. The Transmission system with its frequent interruptions is also an area of concern. However, the metering issue needs to given primacy, as the improvements in distribution are noticeable in a shorter time frame. The PDD also has low collection efficiency, which is attributable to the law and order situation in the state during the last few years.


Finances
Key Positives


The consistent financial support manifested by GoJK’s disbursements on the revenue account has enabled the J&K PDD to have high coverage levels. Consequently, PDD has relatively low debt levels and has not defaulted on debt servicing liabilities during 2001-02. Finally, the PDD has been adhering to the tripartite agreement recommendations after September 2001.


Areas of Improvement


The comparatively low collection efficiency has resulted in a high receivables position of more than 360 days. An absence of a proper mechanism to fund the gratuity liabilities is another area of concern.


Areas of Improvement

 

The unbundling of the PDD into corporatized transmission and distribution entities is an area of concern. The operationalization of ERC is also essential to make the PDD more accountable and efficient. ERC Areas of Improvement In the MoU signed with Government of India, the ERC was to be made operational by July 2002. However there has been slippage on this target by a few months. Operational Parameters (Generation, Transmission and Distribution) Key Positives J&K’s hydel plants show a superior performance on auxiliary consumption and availability factor parameters. This good performance on these parameters is expected to continue.


Outlook: The outlook on the ranking of the state is positive. As the appointment of the ERC chairman was stalled due to various factors, an improvement in the scoring is contingent on operationalisation of the ERC in the coming months.


JAMMU & KASHMIR PERFORMANCE SCORESHEET

 

External Factors 40.0 8.5

 

State Govt related parameters 20.0 8.5

 

Existence of formal Action Plan for timebound reforms 5.0 1.5

 

(The draft of the Reforms Act (drafted by ASCI, Hyderabad) has been accepted in-toto by the state cabinet. However, it could not be passed as an Act by the state legislature due to notification of state elections. The salient features of the reforms act are listed below;

 

1.) Establisment of an ERC

2.) Unbundling of the Power Development Department into transmission and distribution companies and making them economically viable entities

 

> If ’Y’, status of implementation of the plan (Q) An MoU with GoI was signed in April 2002. J&K PDD is taking steps to achieve some milestones- installation of accurate meters at 11 kv level, efforts to operationalise ERC etc. However, achievement of most other milestones are on a medium-term timeframe.

 

 3 year track record on subsidy payments 5.0 4.0

> Average subsidy paid vs payable (%)

 

Subsidy payable = Revenue Gap of PDD+ Billed revenue not collected in FY. Subsidy paid = Actual disbursal by the state Government (SG) on revenue account during the FY According to the above definition, GOJK has been continually paying the subsidy support required by the PDD.

 

> Subsidy o/s (as % of subsidy payable in recent FY) There is no information regarding the past arrears payable by GoJK to the PDD due to cash basis of accounting. Scoring on this parameter is based on the recent favorable payment track record. Although, GoJK was has been disbursing surplus funds to the PDD, the payables to CPSUs have mounted to Rs 1500 crores approximately. This is partly attributable to cash flow mismatches of GoJK whose revenues are highly dependant on grants from Government of India (GoI). CRISIL has been conservative on both these parameters as a detailed break-up of the revenue expenditure on the energy department is not available.

 

Health of State Government finances impacting ability to sustain subsidy levels 5.0 1.0

The revenue gap has been going up consistently, reaching nearly Rs 970 crores in 2001-02 from Rs 650 crores in 1999-00. This revenue gap is further exacerbated by the drop in J&K PDDs collection efficiency in the last few years. Thus PDD’s subsidy burden on GoJK have been increasing. Given that nearly 15% of the State’s total revenue expenditure is on the Power sector, this underscores the significance of the PDD to GoJK. This support by GoJK shall continue given the criticality of border security. GoJK has low revenue deficit levels, however, it is highly dependent on GoI grants (75% of revenues). This low self-reliance impacts the flexibility of GoJK in disbursing additional funds to PDD. However, the subsidy support required by the PDD is unlikely to taper in the short-term.

 

Legislation for power sector reforms 5.0 2.0

 

> Treatment of subsidies in the legislation including transitional support to utilities GoJK has been consistently spending nearly 15% of revenue expenditure on the power sector. In 2000-01, the additional disbursements for the PDD over and above the budgeted figure was almost 51% of the budgeted amount.

 

> Stringent Anti-Theft Legislation and Implementation of the Anti-Theft legislation J&K is one of the few states having a special act - ’State Electricty act (Supply)’ in addition to the J&K electricity act. This act contains provisions to deal with defaulting consumers. Under this act the state has designated magistrates to deal with disputes. In light of this, the PDD doesn’t feel a need to have an anti-theft legislation. However, CRISIL feels the relevance of this act can be observable only when accurate metering is in place and actual tangible results are available to quantify anti-theft measures.


> Powers of the ERC As the reforms act is yet to be passed and an ERC Act yet to be adopted, there is no clarity on the discretionary functions of ERC. B SERC related parameters 20.0 0.0 SERC functioning

 

Infrastructure - Operationalising of SERC 5.0 0.0

 

The committee to appoint the chairman of the ERC has been constituted. It comprises of the Energy Secretary, Energy minister of J&K and a member of CEA. The appointment of the chairman was to be completed by the first week of August 2002. However this could not materialize due to notification of assembly polls. The key officials of PDD feel that the appointment of the chairman would be one of the first initiatives by the new Government given its vital nature. - Staffing of SERC for smooth functioning The ERC will initially be a one- member commission.

 

Operational - Timeliness of orders 5.0 0.0 The ERC is not yet operational.

 

Tariff Philosophy 10.0 0.0 The ERC is not yet operational.


II Internal Factors 60.0 24.0 C Business Risk Analysis 25.0 6.5

 

Generation 6.0 3.5

 

 > Auxiliary power consumption (as % of gross generation for stations put together) The auxiliary consumption for J&K hydel plants is almost equal to the normative auxiliary consupmtion. As hydel capacity makes up 98% of the internal generation, only auxiliary consumption for hydel plants has been considered.

 

> PLF (%) -Only for thermal units (Weighted Average based on capacity) (Average for last three years) J&K PDC has decided not to run its gas-based thermal plant as it is not a viable economic option with the cost of generation being approximately Rs 7.50/unit. The plant is run on liquid diesel. Conseqeuntly, the weighted PLF is very low at 18-19%. > Availability factor (%) The economics of the gas turbine plant, make it unviable for generation of power. Thus, CRISIL has only considered hydel availability for computing J&K’s score on this parameter. The hydel plants availabilty is better than the normative availability of 95% and so it scores favorably on this parameter. > Manpower level per MW generated In 2001-02, approximately 5,500 personnel were involved in generation . Accordingly the ratio comes to 12.03, which reflects adversely on the manpower efficiency in generation.

 

Transmission & Distribution 19.0 3.0

 

> Level of Interface Metering Most of the 356 points at 132Kv/66Kv/33Kv system are metered. However, the accuracy of meters is questionable. Consequenlty, PDD is planning to reinstall all points with 0.2 acuracy electronic meters by December 2002, under an APDP scheme.
 


> Quality of transmission and distribution network J&K has been one of the biggest overdrawers of power in the northern grid. Further, their intra-state transmission network is in a poor condition. At present PDD’s management carries out load-shedding due to the demand-supply gap. Power-cuts vary from 6-8 hours on an average daily. However, its transmission line availability is about 98%. > Units metered (distribn end) / Units input in the transmission system Out of the nine lakh connections, 45% are metered. Further, PDD believes 78%(35% of all connections) of the metered connections are faulty. Consequently, 90% of consumers are actually billed only the flat/fixed charges on basis of connected load. Only 10% (Municipal bodies, Street lighting etc) are charged on a variable basis. There have been no initiatives to improve upon this during 2001-02. However, PDD would be trying to install meters in 2002-03 to achieve the milestones stipulated in the MoU.

 

> Energy Audit (11 kV) The current level of metering does not facilitate an energy audit. However, PDD plans to carry out an auditing at the 11Kv level after all meters are replaced.

 

> Collection efficiency For 2001-02, the collection efficiency was 59% which was low compared to the normal range of 65-69% efficiency. This drop in 2001-02 was mainly attributable to border security reasons and instability.

 

> Manpower in T&D 18.6 employees per thousand consumers, which is quite adverse.

Financial Risk Analysis 30.0 16.5 Fiancials based on 2001-02 (Provisional Accounts) Focus on merged entities

 

Gearing level (Total Debt / Adjusted Networth) 2.5 0.0 As J&K PDD is a state government department, the networth is not computable. In terms of debt levels , SG loans account for 93% of debt. The institutional loans were Rs 258.5 crores on March 2002. D 2 - [Revenues from sale of power) / (Coverage of power purchase cost + own gen costs (incl fuel / O&M)] 3.5 2.5 2-year average is 50%. However, in 2001-02 this stood at 41% down from 53% in 1999-00. This was due to a lower growth in revenue realization from sale of power (8% CAGR during 1999-02) vis-à-vis the growth in power purchase costs( 23% CAGR). The inadequate level of metering constrains, J&K PDD's performance on this parameter. D 3 - [(Revenues from sale of power ) / (Coverage of all optg costs + interest costs)] 5.0 5.0

 

For 2001-02 the figure was 35% vis-à-vis the 41% in 1999-00. PDD performs slightly better on this parameter as the interest burden is not much with a lower level of institutional debt. D 4 - Actual track record of debt servicing 5.0 5.0 Both the utilities (PDD and PDC) have not defaulted on any institutional loan for the past year (2001-02).

 

Reduction in Level of receiveables (Days of sales) 2.5 2.5 The receivables increased to 434 days from 320 days in 1999-00. The increase was primarily due to increase in receivables from domestic, industrial and agriculture consumers.

 

Power purchase and fuel creditors (external to the state) 2.5 0.0 The Ahluwalia committee recommended tripartite agreement (TPA) has been signed for securitization of CPSU payables in September 2001 for securitising Rs 420 crore of CPSU payables. Prior to this J&K PDD had issued bonds for securitizing Rs 720 cr (NHPC dues) in October 2000 and Rs 340 crore(NTPC dues) in March 2001. Subsequent to the signing of the TPA , the PDD has been making regular payments on its Power purchases.


Funding of pension & gratuity liabilities 3.0 1.0 It is mandatory for the State Governments to properly fund the Provident fund and gratuity liabilities through a trust. However, Pension liabilities are paid on a ’pay as you go basis’.

 

Projections and outlook on revenue gap 6.0 0.5 The deficient rainfall would impact the hydel generation and increase dependence on Power purchase, thus increasing the operatings costs. It is unlikely that metering and collection efficiency will improve, given the existing scenario and efforts of PDD. Continuing with the trend of tariff increases over the last few years, a tariff revision as requested by PDD may happen after formation of the next Government. E Others 5.0 1.0

 

 > Information Risk (Q) The MIS of J&K is quite weak and leaves a lot to be desired. Information availability from PDC (Genco) which is corporatized is better. The analysis is based on information provided by J&K PDD and information PDD has forwarded to the Planning commission. > Quality and availability of MIS Further the reporting by PDD is on cash -basis , while the information forwarded to the planning commission is on accrual basis leading to certain mismatches.

 

FINAL SCORE 100.0 32.5 PDD= Power Development Department PDC= Power Development Company, GoJK= Government of J&K

 
 

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