Vikram Gour
It is easy to save energy by applying simple methods of avoiding misuse of electricity and using energy only when required and thus save your money and in addition save your Government’s money. Do you know that if you save electric energy worth a rupee for yourself by consuming less electricity you save additional fifty paisa for the state? This is because one unit of the electricity that reaches your home costs the system another half unit which is lost in transmission of electric power from the generating station to the consumer end. And in our J&K state it costs much more than half unit. Therefore, while we pay for only one unit consumed by us the government pays for one and half unit on its purchase. Therefore by conserving electricity we shall not only save for ourselves but we shall also contribute to the state’s savings.
It is, therefore, imperative that we understand the urgency of saving energy and get into the habit of consuming what we really and genuinely require. Wastage of energy, misuse of energy and extravagant display of wasteful consumption of electricity all contribute to our day today problems of availability of power to us for which we have a tendency to blame the supplier. The day to day problems that we face are undue interruption of power supply, low voltage, some times low frequency, burning of transformers, damage to our appliances due to non-standard voltage etc. If we examine a little carefully we will find most of these problems are created by over loading of power system by unnecessary use of electric power even when we do not need or over use the power when we can do with less than half of what we are using.
A study of installation of E-meters by the PDD, a couple of years back, revealed that in the areas which have been feeder-wise metered completely, the consumption of electricity has come down drastically. At the receiving stations the 11kv panels were showing only 80-100 amperes load instead of 140-160 amperes which was being recorded earlier reducing the load on the feeders and thus eliminating the need to resort to power shutdowns to prevent damage to the equipment because of overloading. This is because the consumers had stopped unwanted and unnecessary use of electricity to save on their electricity bills. Therefore, if the consumers of all types and categories are metered and made conscious of fair use electricity by making them aware of the benefits that are likely to result out of this habit of conservation of energy, not only the consumer will save on his own bill but he will also help the Utility in reducing burden on the state exchequer. Hundreds of crores of rupees thus saved could be spent on improvement of the system to make the power supply trouble free. And imagine the tremendous overall benefits of trouble free and adequate power supply availability to all sectors for the development the state!
For this to happen the PDD has to change its style of functioning in relation to the general public. The PDD has to come out of its close door working and involve the common man in a big way in spreading awareness among the public about the benefits of conservation of energy. The department should establish and strengthen its Public Relation wing and be in regular contact with the public through media both print and electronic. Mohalla-wise public meetings would also go a long way to educate the public. The PR wing should start its awareness exercise right from the school level catching the imagination of the young children who should be made aware of the pluses and minuses of saving energy and its long term effect on the future of the younger generation who have to shoulder the responsibility of future India. It is the children who would carry home the message and compel the older generation to mend their ways. The department should be frank in admitting that public should remain vigilant and cautious from some of the black sheep in the department who are ever ready to exploit/blackmail public with their unscrupulous advice to misuse or commit theft of energy and share the benefits with them. In this bargain the consumer is the ultimate looser besides carrying a guilt feeling.
The PDD should also acquaint the general public with the electricity rules and regulations. Public be given knowledge about the rights of the consumers regarding quality of power supply they are entitled to and the penalties they have to undergo in case of violation of the rules such as tempering of meters, committing theft of electricity, using more than the sanctioned load, subletting of power supply etc. Majority of the consumers are ignorant of the rules and for them what ever the lower staff tells them is rule and they go by how the consumer is guided by the departmental staff and as everyone knows most of the time this advice is irrelevant and unwarranted. This advice is harmful both for the department as well as for the consumer.
This Public Relation exercise of educating public is a big job and needs to be carried out by an agency independent of the wing maintaining the supply lines system. We understand there is already a Commercial Wing of the PDD headed by a Chief Engineer which has been made defunct over the years. This wing was created after thorough discussion at the highest level on the necessity of separation of agency to handle billing and revenue from the engineering side that are mainly busy with the maintenance /construction of the supply system and therefore can not devote sufficient time to the most important aspect of revenue realization. It was also felt that separation of the two agencies would also, to some extent help in reducing the malpractices in the revenue realization process. But after the formation of the Commercial Wing and transfer of large number of requisite staff the wing could not function because of the apathy of then rulers for considerations other than genuine. This Commercial Wing needs now to be made active again immediately and it should take up the job of meter reading, billing, maintenance of revenue records, recovery of revenue, inspections, penalizing the illegal consumers and above all Public Relation work as defined above. This wing should also be entrusted with the job of Energy Auditing to make working staff accountable at all levels. This will go a long way in improving the supply system by reducing the unwanted, unnecessary and illegal/unscrupulous load on the power system which in turn would improve the power supply position to the satisfaction of not only the consumers of all types including domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural etc but also the PDD and the Government.
The new Government with its changed political leadership should give a new direction to the energy sector which is going to celebrate National Energy Conservation Day on 14th of December, almost a month later. The new ministry should also involve NGOs in the awareness campaign and take their help in reaching out to public in schools, colleges and also in the rural areas.
A summary of various measures which can be undertaken by the Government/PDD is listed hereunder:-
* Use of fiscal and financial incentives and credits to promote energy conservation.
* Creation of awareness about energy efficiency through mass media.
* Dissemination of information on energy consumption and conservation potential in various sectors.
* Training of technical and managerial personal on energy management.
* Strengthening of energy audits capability in the state.
* . Direct regulation and legislation relating to energy consumption.
* Determine standards for equipment and processes and evolving norms for e energy consumption for various sectors.
* Development of Energy Database at state level.
* Establishment of R&D and demonstration programmes.
By a combination of the above suggested measures, the JKPDD/ Government can attempt to create conditions in the state’s economy to promote energy conservation which is the only remedy to all power problems of the state. Merely spending more and more funds to create the additional infrastructure and power generation capacity to match our unbridled consumption of electricity will not solve power shortage problem. Unchecked, un-metered and free use of electricity cannot be allowed at any cost if we want to make our power supply system trouble free and healthy for the overall development of the State.
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