Srinagar, Nov 18 (KNO): While the power sector continues to function with ‘decades old infrastructure’, Jammu and Kashmir is likely to witness growth in power demand by nearly 50 percent in a decade.
According to the official documents available with the news agency—Kashmir News Agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), authorities have projected that Jammu and Kashmir will likely have an extra power demand by 49.42 percent by the year 2034-35.
The official further clarified that the peak demand will be more than the average growth saying that the region may likely witness an increase in power demand by 6 percent each year from 2025-26 to 2034-2035.
Stating the year wise growth rate in power demand, authorities have said that in the year Jammu and Kashmir will likely have a five percent extra demand in the year 2025-26 followed by four percent in the year 2026-27, four percent in 2027-28, three percent in 2028-29.
It also said that in the year 2029-30, the region may experience growth rate in power demand by five percent followed by four percent in 2030-31, four percent in 2031-32, three percent in 2032-33, five percent in 2033-34 and four percent in the year 2034-35 respectively.
“Peak and Energy Demand for the UT of J&K and Ladakh has been taken as per the projections provided by the UT department. The Demand estimation by J&K was higher than projected by 20th Electric Power Survey of India (EPS). Therefore, the studies have been carried out using projections given by the J&K UT department,” it reads.
The documents further reveal that the future demand profile for the year 2034-35 has been projected using the demand profile of J&K for the year 2022-23 as the base profile. “The actual solar generation profiles and CUFs have been taken as provided by J&K.”
It also said that according to the data provided by J&K, an additional 392 MW of Coal (Shakti Scheme), 620 MW of solar and 1206 MW of hydro is planned till 2030.—(KNO)