- No coordination among different wings of JPDCL
- Smart metered areas too not being spared
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, July 17: The unannounced and frequent power cuts being imposed by Jammu Power Distribution Corporation Limited (JPDCL) in different parts of Jammu on regular basis are putting the people to extreme trouble in the humid weather condition. Moreover, there is no coordination among different wings of the Corporation while executing infrastructure improvement/maintenance or fault rectification works and due to this public grievances get compounded.
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On May 29, 2024, the Jammu Power Distribution Corporation Limited (JPDCL) issued a public notice mentioning that in view of the improvement in power infrastructure by way of capacity addition and repairs of 2x50MVA, 132/66KV Power Transformer at Grid Station Samba and 10MVA, 33/11kV Power Transformer at Miran Sahib, the curtailment schedule for Summer 2024, issued by Chief Engineer (Distribution) JPDCL Vide Communication No: CEJ/TS-II/906-20 dated: 27-05-2024, stands withdrawn and JPDCL will provide 24×7 power supply in smart metered areas and up to 20 hours power supply in other areas.
It was further mentioned in the notice that JPDCL will have to resort to distressed curtailments in order to safeguard the critical power infrastructure as and when required. Moreover, directions were issued that maintenance and repair works should be planned in such a manner that there should be no inconvenience to the general public and there should be no long hour outages even in rural areas.
Notwithstanding all this, several areas of Jammu are continuously witnessing unannounced power curtailments particularly at a time when humidity level has increased considerably. What to talk of other areas, even smart-metered areas are not being spared leading to resentment among the public.
EXCELSIOR has received a number of telephonic calls from power consumers in different areas of Jammu during the past several days with every caller expressing resentment over the frequent and unannounced power cuts in their respective areas.
“The announcement regarding 24×7 power supply in smart metered areas has fallen flat as authorities are resorting to power cuts several times in 24 hours. Even in the mid-night they snap the power supply and then none of the concerned officials remains available to respond to the queries regarding reasons for curtailment and time-frame for restoration”, the power consumers said.
They further said, “the distressed curtailments have become an excuse to deprive the people of power supply during the prevailing weather conditions”, adding “the JPDCL has revised the load of the consumers and even installed smart-meters in several areas but still they take the excuse of excessive load on the transformers, which cannot be justified as installation of transformers keeping in view the load of particular area is the task of Corporation and not of the consumers”.
Moreover, there is no coordination among the authorities of different wings of the Corporation while executing infrastructure improvement/ maintenance or fault rectification works and due to this public grievances get compounded.
“Whenever 132 KV line remains under shut-down nobody prefers to carry out urgent nature of work on 33 KV or other lines and it is only after restoration of 132 KV line they prefer to take shut-down of other lines as a result of which we remain deprived of power supply for hours together”, people said, adding “moreover instead of isolating a particular area for restoration work the concerned authorities resort to shut down of vast area, which is highly unjustified and is against the directive that maintenance and repair works should be planned in such a manner that people don’t face inconvenience”.
When contacted, Chief Engineer (Distribution) Manhar Gupta admitted that no power curtailment schedule has been issued. “The power-cut is supposed to be imposed in case of any exigency or whenever urgently required”, he added. He agreed that maintenance and repair works are required to be carried out in coordinated manner to avoid inconvenience to the people especially during the prevailing weather condition.
There was no reply from the Chief Engineer Systems and Operations Rajan Gupta even after repeated telephonic calls to ascertain the reasons behind frequent shut-down of 132 KV line.
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