The Kashmir Power Development Corporation Limited claimed to have restored 95% supply by today evening in the Kashmir division even as there was heavy snowfall in the upper reaches.
The staff of KPDCL started restoration and repair works of power feeders and distribution lines across Kashmir from 7 am and till evening 95 percent power supply was restored across Kashmir, it said.
Managing Director, KPDCL, Aijaz Asad said that out of 951 feeders of 11 KV, 937 stand restored. “Team KPDCL is on job, however the snowfall continues in various parts of Kashmir which may lead to faults in some lines,” he said.
As per the official data of KPDCL, the corporation was supplying 1410 Megawatts of electricity in the evening. Chief Engineer, KPDCL Aijaz Ahmad Dar said “continuous snowfall is a challenge as it may cause faults in power feeders. But till evening we have restored 95 percent of the power supply.”
Giving details, he said “our teams started early in the morning. At 7 am we had out 115, 33Kv lines in Kashmir division 25 were under fault, by evening all stands were restored.”
“Regarding 11 KV feeders, 240 had developed snags due to snowfall fall, now only 16 are under fault, they too were restored during the day but due to snowfall they developed faults again,” he said. He said that the snowfall has caused damage to 85 distribution transformers. However, he said that due to pre-planning of the KPDCL, the percentage of damage is less in comparison to last year as around 350 transformers were damaged during snowfall last year.
Dar, however, stated that continuous snowfall is causing faults continuously on various feeders. “We have directed all the staff to work on repairs and restoration till 8 pm so that the people would face no inconvenience.” Dar said that on the directions of the LG, the KPDCL has ensured proper preparedness for winter months. “In autumn, KPDCL ensured pruning of trees, inspection of all lines and fusing of distribution transformers to minimize disruption of power during winter months.”
Meanwhile the netizens have also hailed the efforts of the ground staff of KPDCL who despite snowfall have worked tirelessly to restore power supply across Kashmir.
As per the experts, the snowfall will increase the hydropower generation in J&K which had plummeted due to less precipitation. The less amount of precipitation this year has badly affected the hydroelectric generation in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to official figures, currently the generation from hydropower plants in J&K is around 250 megawatts which is just 10 percent of the total restricted demand across the UT.