Come winter, Kashmir gets dis-empowered, electrically
JK’s aggregate technical, commercial losses one of the highest in India
Srinagar: As winter knocks at the doors of Kashmir Valley, people here have started witnessing electric, scheduled and unscheduled, with such a frequency that worries them of the real winter days when mercury would go down below zero.
Though the concerned authorities have already issued a load-shedding schedule for both metered and un-metered areas, it is not being followed in letter and spirit, alleging consumers across the Valley.
Even in the areas, where smart meters have been installed and people are pre-paying their dues, the announced schedule has proved to be a hoax, they further allege.
In rural Kashmir, the electric power supply scenario is grim, people are upset and there is no one to listen to them, allege consumers.
Meanwhile, a local news agency, KNO today reported that in Jammu and Kashmir, the Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) loss of the Power Development Department is one of the highest in India—causing a gap between power purchase cost and revenue realisation.
Currently, the AT&C losses are of the order of 50 percent against the national average of 19.73 percent.
Quoting official documents KNO reported, “The AT&C losses of J&K Power Development Department are one of the highest in the country.”
“The present AT&C losses are of the order of 50 percent against the national average of 19.73 percent. Due to these losses, the gap between power purchase cost and revenue realisation is huge,” the news agency reported.
It further said that there was a high cost of power supply to the exchequer due to the scattered and remote location of households.
The document, in possession of KNO, states that in Jammu and Kashmir, a substantial quantum of electricity is lost as electrical efficiency (I^2R) loss leading to a high cost of power supply.
“Due to the existence of long Low Tension (LT) lines carrying electricity to distant and scattered households over mountain tops, a substantial quantum of electricity is lost as I2R loss leading to the high cost of power supply,” reported KNO.
Quoting the official document, KNO reported that the electricity demand was surging in the UT of J&K with the continual growth of around 8-10 per cent year on year, attributable mainly to the rapid pace of urbanisation and the addition of a large number of households through recent electrification schemes.
Whatever the reasons, the fact of the matter is that Kashmir is already suffering on the power front and people are worried about what will happen when the real winter starts, say some experts, adding, that the administration needs to take the issue seriously and see what are the issues that plague the supply chain and do some corrective measures.
