No coordination among different wings of PDD on imposing power curtailments

*People suffering a lot

Mohinder Verma

JAMMU, Jan 12: There is no coordination among different wings of the Power Development Department (PDD) on imposing power curtailments in various parts of Jammu province as a result of which people are suffering a lot. Moreover, instead of acting on the repeated requests of the consumers the concerned officials prefer to pass bucks on each other thereby aggravating the situation.
Due to minimal water discharge in hydroelectric power plants and subsequent low power generation, the Power Development Department is resorting to ‘forced’ curtailment of one hour each in the morning and evening hours in almost all the parts of the region.
“Apart from this, the department is also imposing power curtailments several hours in a day on one or the other pretext thereby creating inconvenience for the people during the cold weather conditions”, a number of people told EXCELSIOR telephonically alleging that they never receive satisfactory reply about the reasons behind such long curtailments whenever they approach the officials of the department.

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According to the people, after forced curtailment of one hour in the morning by the State Load Dispatch Centre (SLDC), the other wings of the department particularly those managing 33 KV and below lines regularly resort of their own curtailments on the pretext of carrying out maintenance and replacement works and due to this consumers remain without electricity supply for several hours in a day.
Alleging that all this happens mainly because of lack of coordination among different wings of the department, people said, “there should be proper planning so as to ensure that all the maintenance and replacement works at different levels are carried out during the curtailment taken by one wing of the department”, adding “this is imperative to minimize the inconvenience being faced by the consumers”.
They further said, “in certain feeders the curtailment is much more than other feeders because of the reasons best known to those at the helm of affairs in different wings of the department and this disparity has mostly been noticed in the areas being fed from the Janipur Grid Station”, adding “moreover, there is tendency of passing bucks on each other in different wings of the department whenever such grievances are projected before them”.
“At the time of installation of Smart Meters, it was announced by the Government that such areas will face minimum curtailments but the present situation is contrary to the same”, residents of several areas said, adding “notwithstanding repeated announcements from the department about drastic improvement in the power infrastructure, the situation vis-à-vis power curtailments remain the same in winters as well as during summer”.
The prolonged power cuts not only deprive people of electricity but also create water shortage as majority of the pumping stations of the Jal Shakti Department can’t be operated without power supply.
EXCELSIOR approached several senior officers of the department to ascertain the reasons behind lack of coordination among different wings and they said, “because of less availability of electricity and huge demand during the cold weather conditions forced curtailment in the morning and evening hours is unavoidable”.
Though the officers admitted that sometimes certain areas face prolonged curtailments yet they attributed the same to the necessity of carrying out some works of urgent nature. However, there was no satisfactory reply about lack of coordination and proper planning at various levels, which otherwise is the main concern of the consumers.
Not only this, the repeated requests of the consumers in several areas regarding laying of bunch cabling to bring an end to the power thefts have not been taken seriously. “We have been requesting in this regard during the past more than one year but only assurances were given to us”, said residents of several areas under New Subash Nagar Receiving Station.