Power curtailment withdrawn during Covid lockdown; govt says it will help patients and hospitals

Srinagar:  Power situation in the Kashmir valley has improved considerably bringing a sigh of relief to the people in general and COVID patients, receiving oxygen therapy, in particular.

Chief Engineer Chief Engineer (Distribution) Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL) Aijaz Ahmad Dar told The Kashmir Monitor that the demand has fallen to 1700 Megawatts in May due to which they have withdrawn the curtailment schedule to the majority of the areas.

“During the corona lockdown we have withdrawn the curtailment schedule for the majority of the areas. Only 10 percent of the receiving stations in Kashmir are witnessing a strain due to which in some areas of north Kashmir the curtailment schedule is still implemented,” he said.

Dar said the department was currently generating 1500 Megawatts on an average daily to meet the power demand. “We are hoping for further improvement in the power situation because of the improvement in the temperature. A unique action plan is being formulated and implemented for better power supply during summers in Kashmir,” he said.

The chief engineer KPDCL said the department is supplying additional 35 lakh units of power per day as compared to the previous year.  “As of now, we have 150 Mega Watts of additional power supply if compared to the previous year. We are adding more Megavolt amperes (MVA) on the 33 and 11KV line, which expectedly will improve the power situation,” he said.

Dar said the people too have become conscious about power usage during last few months due to which the department has been able to meet the demand.

“People are cooperating with the department and are using electricity judiciously. We are focusing on summer and preparing for better power situation during winters as well,” Dar said.

During Ramadan, 1630 Megawatts was supplied compared to last year’s load of 1475 Megawatts.

Power supply in Jammu and Kashmir recorded an increase of 6.33 percent while the power consumption too witnessed an increase of 5.4 percent in 2020-21 in comparison to the financial year 2019-20.

According to figures, the peak power demand during 2019-20 in Jammu and Kashmir was 2719 MW which went up to 2827 MW in 2020-21 up till January 2021.

During winters, the electricity demand had shot up to more than 2100 Megawatts per day.  As a result, the government had to issue a curtailment schedule given the huge gap between generation and demand.