A high level meeting was held under the chairmanship of Governor, Satya Pal Malik to review the preparedness of JKPDD for providing regular and smooth power supply to the consumers during peak demand period of summer season.Sh. Khurshid Ahmed Ganai, Advisor to Governor; Sh. BVR Subrahmanyam, Chief Secretary; Sh. Umang Narula, Principal Secretary to Governor; Sh. Hirdesh Kumar, Secretary JKPDD; Sh. Sanjeev Verma, Divisional Commissioner Jammu, were among those present in the meeting.Sh. Hirdesh Kumar gave a presentation of the prime issues faced by the Department in summers of last year vis-a-vis the measures taken in all links of the power supply chain, during the year so as to ensure that adequate power is made available to the consumers in summers.At the outset, it was informed that the power availability to the State has improved in comparison to last year. However, to meet any power deficit arising due to increased demand, additional power will be purchased through short term PPAs, URS, IEX and other economically suitable means.Secretary PDD further presented a comprehensive detail of capacity additions done by the Department at all voltage levels/ critical points during the year and those likely to be completed by end of May. Further elaborating the same, he said that with strengthening of transmission system, adequate power will be available at distribution level as 50 MVA more capacity will be available at 220 KV level and 290 MVA more capacity will be available at 132 kV level as compared to last year. While in Distribution Sector, the distress in power due to 29 critically overloaded Receiving Stations, where capacity constraints were experienced last year has been addressed by way of augmentation of existing transformation capacities and creation of new power transformers and at DT level, 167 MVA capacity additions has been done.PDD informed that this summer, 24 x7 Power shall be supplied to Jammu City, Udhampur, Reasi and Ramban town areas while power cut will not exceed 1 hour in urban areas of Districts Samba, Kathua, Rajouri, Poonch, Dodaand Kishtwar this season.
PDD will minimize power cuts in rural areas as well, specifically from 6 pm to 11 pm, when maximum power is required by the households and formulate a roster in this regard so as to impose power cut in a staggered manner while ensuring that at least 2-3 hrs power supply is assured to the consumers during the said period. He expressed his concern over the high DT failure rate accrued last year.It was discussed that around 60,000 DTs are running in the system and failure of DTs causes a lot of inconvenience to the public. As such, Governor directed the Department to install overload protection devices so as to save the DTs from burning during overload.`In addition, Governor also asked the Department to keep a sufficient reserve of DTs of all capacities for immediate replacement in case of damage while minimizing the turn-around time. In urban areas, the DT replacement shall in no case be delayed more than 12 hrs, which was previously 24 hrs while in rural areas, the replacement time shall not exceed 3 days.Besides, Governor also advised the Department to install fire fighting equipment at the buffer stock complexes, where reserve DTs will be kept to prevent any untoward incidence. To improve the consumer centric services, a toll free helpline number/ call centre will be provided while setting up 24x7 Divisional Level Complaint Centre for any enquiry about power supply related issues/ complaint registration.While directing the Department to put a stern check on power pilferage, he said that electrical energy meters shall be installed at the power supply points/ poles so as to ascertain the precise areas, rampant with power theft.Taking cognizance of electrical accidents while carrying out the system upkeep/ repairs, the Department was instructed to provide safety equipment to the line staff and presence of a guard at all Receiving Stations/ supply points, who will ensure that power supply is not switched on till the linemen are working on the network. Furthermore the PDD was directed that the field functionaries of the Department should be given life insurance cover under various schemes launched by the Government for which the premium amount will be funded by the Department.