The government has miserably failed to improve the power supply position in the Valley and is resorting to severe power cuts across Kashmir in the chilling cold.
The Power Development Department (PDD) has resorted to 10-12 hour power outages even in metered areas evoking strong public outrage as well as the censure of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC).
As per a recent schedule of power curtailment approved by PDD, the metered areas will be subjected to at least 4-hour power cuts while the non metered areas will face upto 8-hour power cuts.
However, the unscheduled power cuts remain more frequent and in some areas the outages range between 10-12 hours.
The situation is particularly grim in rural pockets, where Power Development Department (PDD) has failed to stick to any power curtailment schedule.
“In areas, where the load on the distribution network is high, we have to restore to longer power cuts,’’ said a senior official of the PDD.
Chief Engineer PDD, Shahnaz Goni, said PDD was trying to stick to curtailment schedule that has been approved by the government.
“Government has approved the schedule of 4-hour power curtailment and 8-hour in non metered areas but we propose to supply the additional power units to different areas,” he said.
The cuts come even as SERC recently approved nearly 10 percent hike in power tariff of the industrial and domestic consumers.
Secretary SERC, Anil Gupta, said the Commission has directed the PDD to improve the supply of electricity besides taking measures to upgrade the infrastructure to check power distribution losses.
In the petition for this year, which was filed by the PDD, it has informed the Commission that it is facing an average loss of 45 percent.
“We have asked the PDD that it should take steps to reduce the power distribution and transmission losses. As per the government guidelines, the losses have to be brought down to 15 percent by 2022. The PDD has been directed to take appropriate steps and to show compliance,” Anil said.
The PDD has failed to upgrade the power distribution infrastructure and its plans including a one of setting up the low capacity distribution transformers to supply electricity to limited households have not borne any fruit.
The government records point to the deficit that it is facing to meet the demand of electricity.
As per the PDD, the state’s peak power demand has increased by over 8 percent during the period from 2011 to 2015.
Against the requirement of 1600 MWs of electricity during the peak time in Kashmir, there is a shortfall of 400 MWs of electricity.
In the last financial year, the peak deficit continued to be around 23 percent.
“High share of hydropower in generation mix combined with the outages in transmission and generation sources has led to seasonal variations in power availability situation in the Valley. The state is energy deficient and relies on the power purchases from Northern region grid to meet its requirements, especially during winter when the demand peaks and own generation reduces drastically. As such there remains a large gap between the requirement and availability of energy,” noted a recent PDD document, highlighting the grim power scenario in the state.
The PDD has also admitted to the “systemic inefficiency’’ in upgrading the power infrastructure.
“The state is incurring heavy losses every year as the revenue realization doesn’t fit the target. The reason for the large and widening gap between the power purchase bill and the revenue realization include low tariff, high transmission and distribution losses, faulty meters, uncontrolled and unaccounted consumption of power beyond the agreement load of the consumers, unregistered connections, non realization of revenue from non camp temporary installation of security forces, migrant camps and public lighting by the Municipal Corporation and government offices,” the PDD documents further read.
As per the estimates of the government, the revenue gap between the supply of power and the actual tariff realization is very high. The average cost of supply of electricity is Rs 7.72 per unit that also includes the approved losses of 42.26 percent due to the decrepit power infrastructure.
Officials attribute the high number of unmetered connections to the recurring losses in the power distribution as well as the overloaded power infrastructure.
“In case we purchase higher units of electricity from the Northern grid, we leave our infrastructure over-burdened that only causes snags in the transmission set up,” they said.
President of Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Mushtaq Ahmad Wani, said the people, particularly the industry is facing a difficult time, due to the power outages.
“When we open the units during the relaxation in shutdown announced by Hurriyat, we have to face power cuts. It has hit our produce drastically,” he said.
PDD leaves people groping in dark with 8-9 hr power cuts
