Avtar Bhat/
Fayaz Bukhari
JAMMU/SRINAGAR, Dec 30: There is no hope of improvement in power scenario in the State as out of 2300 MWs of power needed by it for domestic and commercial consumption, the State can hardly arrange 1200 to 1300 MWs of power during the Winter Season resulting in enforcement of power cuts of more duration especially in rural area. In Kashmir valley also, the power cuts remained unabated.
The authoritative official sources told Excelsior that the state is confronted with problems in meeting out the demand because the supply of electricity decreased considerably with the fall of generation in Winter as the water level goes down in the rivers.
Sources said that problem has become further complicated for the State with Central restricting the State from over-drawal from Northern Grid after the Grid failure in last Summer resulting in power crisis in many States.
The Northern Grid, which is the main source of supplying electricity to the State has restricted its supply to 600 MWs out of 1655 MWs which is the State’s own share in the Grid, sources said.
The total unrestricted need of electricity for both commercial as well as domestic purposes is 2300 MWs but due to shortage of supply this has been restricted to 1800 MWs in the State, sources added.
To meet the gap between demand and supply, the Department has imposed eight hour scheduled power curtailments in the State, sources said, adding in Winter months this supply is further reduced due to fall in generation.
Sources said that not only the supply is reduced by Northern Grid during the Winter season but the State’s own generation has reduced due to fall of water level in rivers while the load increased constantly both in Kashmir Valley and in Jammu region during this season.
Out of 450 MWs of power generation capacity, Baglihar Power Project is generating 150 MWs at present while from other projects including Lower Jehlum, Upper Sindh Stage First and Stage Second, besides Ganderbal and Chenani the total generation in Winter falls to 100 and 150MWs, sources said. The capacity of power generation of these projects is 255 MWs approximately, sources added.
Admitting this Chief Engineer, Commercial PDD, Vinod Khajuria said out of the total share of 1650 MWs from Northern Grid, the State gets at the most 400 to 600 MWs supply in Winter whereas the supply available to it from its own projects including, Baglihar is 225 to 300 MWs. Thus the total supply from its own resources and Northern Grid during the Winter is 800 to 900 MWs approximately while the restricted need with enforcement of eight hour power cuts is 1800 MWs in the State, he added.
He said so there is still a shortfall of 800 to 900 MWs. To meet this need, the State purchases surplus 400 MWs of power from Punjab, Haryana and other States, he added.
However the sources said during peak hours the demand in Kashmir Valley is 1085 MWs while it is upto 800 MWs in Jammu region.
However the sources said that the people not only face problems due to shortage of power supply but lack of proper infrastructure. The power supply remains off for hours together in case of hailstorm, snowstorm or heavy rains.
Even during the Friday night rainfall the power supply in most areas of Jammu was off for complete night and when contacted Chief Engineer M&RE Shahnaz Goni said that the fault occurred due to uprooting of electric poles at various places and damaging of transformers. She said the power supply was restored in city and its surrounding areas by Saturday morning while the restoration work was on in rural belt.
There is also a lot of resentment among the people all over the State against the enforcement of power cuts more than schedule. While in some rural areas people face power cuts of over 12 hours, in remote and far-flung areas situation is worst. As per reports, the power supply remained off for days together in case of a minor fault in these areas.
To register their protest against the power crisis in Rajouri district, the advocates took out a candle light procession yesterday. According to Vibodh Gupta, secretary Bar Association Rajouri, people are fed up with functioning of the PDD as they faced power cuts for more than 14 hours a day. In rural belt people did not see the light for days together even after a minor fault and in Rajouri town light remained off from 12 midnight to 4 am daily, he added.
“The local lines and transformers are over 20 year old with the result they are neither functioning properly nor bear the increasing load due to increase in population”, said Aehsan Mirza, advocate and Member Rajouri Bar.
Anil Sharma, Sarpanch Dansal block said his area is also facing worst ever power cuts and the Department is not ready to cooperate with public representatives to find a solution to the problem. He said area faced over 10 hours power cut routine.
Same is the situation even in surrounding areas of Jammu city where electricity plays hide and seek, said Rajesh Gupta, an industrialist.
He said power remained off for entire day in the area of Talab Tillo today and normally the people faced more power cuts than schedule in the area. Even in some metered areas of the city power cuts of more than nine hours were being enforced, he added.
But the people in Mendhar and other villagers of tehsil have another tale to tell. For them power remained off for days to-gather. The electricity remained off in Mendhar area for three days this week and there is no light after 9 pm daily, said Wasim Ahmed Khan, a local leader.
He said Gursain Nullah, Famda Nar, Harni and Adi areas faced over 12 hour power cut and some times power remained off for days together.
In Kathua district, according to reports over 30 power transformers are non functional after developing fault and despite the pleas of the people, they have not been restored. This has further compounded the problems of the people who have to remain without power supply for days together, said Prem Nath Dogra, a social activist.
The worst ever power crisis are being faced by the people in various villages of Hiranagar, Ramkote and Basohli said Pankaj Sharma a youth leader. The situation is also no better in remote villages of Billawar and Bani, he added.
Meanwhile, as Kashmir valley is in the grip of cold wave conditions with sub-zero night temperatures and below 6 degree Celsius day temperatures making people to shiver, unscheduled power cuts by the Power Development Department (PDD) continued unabated.
According to sources in the PDD against the demand of 1400 Mega Watts for Kashmir valley, the PDD is supplying around 9500 MWs to the consumers on daily basis.
As the power generation of the local power projects has dipped due to low discharge in the rivers due to winter, the PDD imports around 850 MWs of power these days to meet the power demand of Kashmir valley.
The State owned local power projects of Lower Jehlum, Upper Sindh I and II are currently generating 100 MWs of power while their generation capacity is 105 MWs, 22 MWs and 105 MWs respectively. The Uri Civil –I having generation capacity of 480 MWs is generating around 200 MWs.
Sources said that Kashmir valley is presently importing 850 MWs to meet the power demand in the winter. It may be mentioned here that the power demand in winter goes up as the consumers use heating gadgets to keep their homes and offices warm.
In the metered areas of Kashmir valley, the PDD is subjecting its consumers of 21 hours unscheduled weekly power cut. Normally every day consumers are subjected to first one hour power between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m., second one hour power cut between 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. and third one hour power cut between 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. However, the Chief Engineer Maintenance and Rural Electrification, Muzaffar Mattoo, said that in metered areas, there are 30 to 60 minutes distress cut on daily basis.
In the non- metered areas there is weekly scheduled power cut of 47 hours and additional unscheduled power cut of 13 more hours across Kashmir valley. There is 5 hours daily power cut in these areas, 7 hours weekly evening power cut and 5 hours one night power cut. Besides these scheduled cuts, majority of the areas have at least 13 hours of unscheduled power cuts and in rural areas the consumers complained of even more unscheduled power cuts.
However, Chief Engineer Mattoo said that there are 7 hours daily power cuts in non-metered rural areas and 3 and a half hours daily power cuts in non-metered urban areas of Kashmir valley.
The PPD officials blamed power thefts by majority of the consumers in Kashmir valley for power cuts. They say that if the consumers use the electricity as per the agreement then the Valley has surplus power supply. They said that some of the PDD employees are helping the consumers in power thefts.
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