Power Development Department

With the growing demand of electricity after the onset of winters, the Power Development Department (PDD) has requested for more power to reduce the issues of distress and unscheduled power cuts across the Valley.

A top official informed that the demand for power has increased significantly from the past two weeks and requires extra electricity to overcome it.

“We are expecting some power from the authorities because we have demanded more power. Let’s see what we get,” the official said.

It also said, “The unrestricted demand of electricity including the ongoing power curtailment schedule has reached 2600-2700 Megawatts. However, as of now, we have only 1450 MWs of power.”

About the new curtailment schedule, the official further added that the department has to provide 24 hours power supply to the essential 250 feeders on which hospitals and other important departments rely on.

“In Kashmir division, more than 50% of feeders’ are supplying power to flat-rated areas wherein the power curtailment is almost eight hours. However, in rest of the feeders, the power curtailment depends directly on Aggregate Technical and Commercial losses (AT&C) losses,” the official said.

Regarding the power generation issues, the official said, “From the power plants of the Kashmir region, the local power generation has further decreased from 60 MWs to 40 MWs.”

Earlier in the first week of December, KNO has reported that that the local DISCOM in Kashmir valley was not getting the same amount of power wherein the consumers could not face distress cuts and unscheduled power cuts—(KNO)

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In view of dip in local power generation, the Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Department (PDD) is likely to announce new power curtailment schedule in coming days.

A top official of the PDD informed that “Soon we will be announcing the new power curtailment schedule. We are already working on it and most likely we will be announcing the curtailment schedule this week only.”

“Currently, we have availability of 2300-2400 Megawatts for both the Jammu and Kashmir regions. However, the demand is 2500-2600 Megawatts,” the official said.

He said, “We have a number of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) that go for 20-25 years. Besides, we have central allotments as well. There is a regular purchase process.”

The official further said, “We are also receiving the power from the centre from the PPA made in 2023.”

Earlier this week, KNO reported that in Jammu and Kashmir, the power generation from the state pool has reduced by nearly 80 percent.

“From across the regions, the total power generation capacity is 1200 Megawatts. However, as of now we are only able to generate a total of 200-260 Megawatts of power from the UT pool,” the official said.

About the ongoing power curtailment, the official had said, “We cut off nearly 200-250 Megawatts during the peak hours. That is a force curtailment. Otherwise we have 38-40 feeders that are working 24 hours.”

The official had also said, “In urban areas, as of now there is a power curtailment of over 6 hours and over eight hours of power curtailment in rural areas.”— (KNO)

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