Frequent electricity cuts make winter unbearable for residents
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, January 3
With the minimum temperature plummeting to sub-zero level in the ongoing winter season, frequent power cuts have thrown life out of gear in Kashmir.
Power outages across Kashmir have made winter unbearable for people, particularly children and elderly, as the night temperature is slipping to below freezing point.
The Alasteng grid station will be functional by the end of January. Once that becomes functional, the issue of power crisis in Kashmir will be addressed to a large extent.
Qazi Hashmat, chief engineer, systems and operations
While metered areas are witnessing unscheduled power cuts, the unmetered areas, particularly villages, are witnessing power outage for longer hours.
Power Development Department (PDD) officials accuse people of power thefts and misusing the power supply.
“People are using power as if there is no tomorrow. The system is too overloaded and we are seeing people using electric heaters in open air,” said a senior official of the PDD.
He said power crisis would continue because the PDD could not go for enforcement drives in the past five months due to uncertain situation.
“We live in a metered area and have been facing power outage for more than 12 hours. And you can’t afford to delay paying the inflated power bills or argue with indecent PDD officials over it,” said Farooq Ahmad, a resident of Wagoora tehsil in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
Currently the peak unrestricted demand for power in the Kashmir valley is nearly 1,900 MW. But the existing transmission system has the capacity to import only 1,250 MW.
Under the Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Programme, the then Congress-led UPA government in 2006 approved the construction of several grid stations across J&K to enhance its transmission and supply capacity. Despite the availability of funds, their construction was delayed for almost a decade.
Three such grid stations in the Valley at Alasteng, Delina and Budgam would have increased power handling capacity at 220 kV by additional 512 MW and taken the overall import capacity at 220 kV to 1,762 MW from the current 1,250 MW.
The augmentation in power transmission and supply capacity by 1,762 MW would have addressed the power woes in the winters, when energy demand shoots up and the Power Department resorts to prolonged and unscheduled power cuts.
Chief Engineer, Systems and Operations, Qazi Hashmat said, “The Alasteng grid station will be functional by the end of January. Once that becomes functional, the issue of power crisis in Kashmir will be addressed to a large extent.”
Hashmat said work on the Zainakot-Alasteng line was in its last stage and would help in importing 320 MW to power grid to boost the power supply in Kashmir.
