Power wretchedness: ‘Is KPDCL making concocted promises or is unable to cater expected services to consumers’

Power wretchedness: ‘Is KPDCL making concocted promises or is unable to cater expected services to consumers’

We are getting a total power of 1200 MWs against a requirement of 1600 MWs. The matter will be settled in weeks’ time: CE KPDCL

Riyaz Bhat

Srinagar, Apr 26 (KNO): The Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL) is either ‘making concocted promises or are unable to cater the expected services to the consumers of the region’.

The news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) received many calls from the electricity consumers of many areas of valley—complaining of frequent power outages, long durational curtailments and distress cuts.

One of the consumers from south Kashmir’s Pulwama district Rashid Jehangir said, “KPDCL has not met its promises to supply round the clock power to its smart metered areas. We pay monthly tariff ranging from 3000-4000, yet we get electricity for few hours.”

Authorities in the previous fiscal undertook power reforms in Kashmir including installing smart meters and insulated power cables to prevent pilferages of electricity and reduce AT&C losses. “But the department has resorted to unscheduled power cuts with metered areas worst affected.”

Many consumers in central Kashmir’s Budgam district and Srinagar areas narrated the same ordeal.

One of the electricity consumers in Karan Nagar Farooq Ahmad said, “On Thursday evening, electricity was snapped after two hours of scheduled curtailment at 10 Pm and was restored at around 3Am—reflecting the fake promises made by the Power Development Department.”

“I think KPDCL is making concocted promises to its consumers or they are not able to cater the expected services to its consumers in Kashmir which could be the possible reason for the long durational power and distress cuts,” Ahmad said.

When contacted KPDCL Chief Engineer (Distribution), Sandeep Seth told KNO that the low power availability was the only reason for long durational power curtailments.

“We are getting nearly a total power of 1200 Megawatts (MWs) against the requirement of 1600 MWs. This will be settled in a weeks’ time,” he said.

Seth said that in metered areas KPDCL have curtailed power by only two hours while the non-metered areas are currently facing curtailment of over 10 hours.

On asking about the promise of ‘24 hours power supply’ made by the KPDCL to the smart metered areas, the Chief Engineer said, “We stand with our promise but when it comes to crisis, every consumer needs to be very patient till the issue is resolved.”

“In the month of Ramadan we had enough power availability. During that month, we were distributing nearly 1900 MWs of power,” he said.

Pertinently, on April-22, KPDCL said, “Due to limited power availability, there has been an unavoidable increase in power curtailment. These restrictions will be eased once power availability improves. Please bear with us & ensure judicious use of power, especially during peak hours. Avoid exceeding sanctioned load/hooking.” (SIC)—(KNO)