The Kashmir Power Development Corporation Limited has announced power curtailment schedule according to which non-metered areas will face 4-hour and metered areas 3-hour curtailment per day.
As per the schedule, the curtailment shall be 3 hours for metered feeders (1 hour in each slot) and 4 hours for non metered feeders (in 3 slots) against last year’s cut of 7 and 10 hours respectively.
The schedule will be valid from 7 to 23 November.
Speaking to Greater Kashmir, Chief Engineer KPDCL, Ajaz Ahmad Dar said that the curtailment scheduled was issued in view of the unrestricted load going up to 2100 megawatts. “We have time and again requested people to cooperate with the power department by making judicious use of electricity.”
He said that every day “our inspection teams are conducting checks against misuse of electricity. You will be surprised to know that some households are using heaters even in cowsheds by resorting to power theft.”
He said that due to “unrestricted demand” there is a gap in supply which forces them to resort to power curtailment. “We have enhanced our grid capacity to 1500 MW which was earlier 1250 MW. This will help us to minimize the curtailments.”
It may be mentioned that this year the government commissioned 320 MVA Alasteng and 50 MVA Bandipora grid stations to receive additional electricity from the central grids. For the last few years the centre has been allotting additional electricity to J&K to overcome power crisis. In 2018, the Centre allocated additional 700 MW in view of higher demand in winters.
However, this winter the health experts are pitching for uninterrupted power supply in view of pandemic, stating that several COVID patients are on oxygen concentrators which run on electricity.
“The continuous supply of oxygen demands uninterrupted supply of electricity and is life saving for such patients. Therefore, we request the KPDCL to provide uninterrupted electricity during coming winters so that lives can be saved,” health experts said.
Lt. Governor, while reviewing the winter preparedness of the Power Department last week, had directed the Power Department for establishment of a task force to ensure power supply and gave strict directions for the availability of surplus transformers to cater to the need during the winter season.