Srinagar- With the growing demand of electricity after the onset of winters, the Power Development Department (PDD) has requested for more power to reduce the issues of distress and unscheduled power cuts across the Valley.
A top official said that the demand for power has increased significantly from the past two weeks and requires extra electricity to overcome it.
“We are expecting some power from the authorities because we have demanded more power. Let’s see what we get,” the official said.
It also said, “The unrestricted demand of electricity including the ongoing power curtailment schedule has reached 2600-2700 Megawatts. However, as of now, we have only 1450 MWs of power.”
“There is a huge gap of nearly 200 MWs to overcome the unscheduled power and distress cuts in Kashmir as at present less than 1500 MWs are available against a total requirement of 1700 MWs,” a top official said earlier last week.
“KPDCL is capable of supplying and providing 2200 MWs of power. There is no issue of carrying capacity. The issue is all about the availability of power,” he said.
About the new curtailment schedule, the official further added that the department has to provide 24 hours power supply to the essential 250 feeders on which hospitals and other important departments rely on.
“In Kashmir division, more than 50% of feeders’ are supplying power to flat-rated areas wherein the power curtailment is almost eight hours. However, in the rest of the feeders, the power curtailment depends directly on Aggregate Technical and Commercial losses (AT&C) losses,” the official said.
Regarding the power generation issues, the official said, “From the power plants of the Kashmir region, the local power generation has further decreased from 60 MWs to 40 MWs.”
Earlier in December, it was reported that the local DISCOM in Kashmir was struggling to secure enough power to prevent distress and unscheduled power cuts.
Moreover, Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL) Chief Engineer (Distribution) Aaquib S Waheed Deva said that the department was witnessing the major damage to DTs majorly in the non-metered areas.
“KPDCL is witnessing a major damage to DTs in non-metered areas and flat rated areas. In these areas, the consumers exceed the sanctioned load that results in damage to DTs,” she said.
Deva further said, “In some areas where meters are installed but are on functioning on bare conductors currently, the consumers are using crude heating gadgets and are illegally consuming the power against the sanctioned load.”
“In case of the areas where we have completed smart metering, very little damage has been recorded so far,” she said.
“In the first week of December, KPDCL has witnessed damage to more than 250 DTs. We however have repaired and fixed the issues as per the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), but there is no relief in the damage,” Deva said.
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