Jammu: The Power Development Department (PDD) is set to achieve the highest ever capacity addition in both the transmission and distribution sectors in J&K this year.
An official spokesman in a statement issued here said that reviewing the progress of various ongoing schemes in J&K, Principal Secretary Power Development Department, Rohit Kansal who chaired the meeting was informed that a total of 1420 MVA at 132 kV level and 1595 MVA at 220 kV level in the transmission sectors were set to be added this financial year.
He said that in the distribution sector, over 100 sub stations were to be completed this year under various schemes adding over 500 MVA capacity to the system.
“Our collective objective should be to ensure 24×7 power supply to all the consumers of J&K in the coming three years,” Kansal said addressing the officers of all power corporations and CPSUs.
Outlining in detail the vision of the department to provide uninterrupted quality power supply to the entire J&K by year 2025, he said that there was a need to have a vision and a detailed plan for the coming three years.
Kansal said that for this there was a need for a detailed system study along with random simulations, IT interventions including unification of billing software, energy accounting and 100 percent metering and increasing billing and collection efficiencies through innovative solutions.
During the discussions, he stressed on system strengthening, financial stability of corporations, resolving issues hampering the pace of projects, systematic improvements and augmentation of projects.
Kansal was apprised that the smart metering project in J&K had taken off well and nearly 15,000 meters were being installed per month.
He directed that the pace of installation should be accelerated so that the target of installation of 2 lakh smart meters by 2022 and 8 lakh meters by 2023 could be met well in time.
Kansal also asked the executing agencies to aim at achieving feeder-wise saturation while installing smart meters.
He also directed that the DISCOMS should install 100 percent DT meters also so that energy accounting could be carried out accurately as a first step towards eliminating losses.
The Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) was also discussed in detail during the meeting.
Kansal thanked the Ministry of Power for the generously-funded scheme where 90 percent of the funds for strengthening the distribution system would be available as a grant to J&K.
He urged the DISCOMS to take advantage of this grant and carry out detailed studies to identify bottlenecks in the system.
“We have to address the key issues which are at the root of seasonal power woes in Kashmir and Jammu regions,” Kansal said and pressed on the need for survey of existing as well as new schemes to decide on the areas and sectors which need to be addressed at once.
He advised RECPDCL to do a feeder-wise energy accounting on behalf of the distribution companies.
Kansal asked them to do a detailed system study and suggest the need for new additions as well as improvement and maintenance of existing networks.
He also called for suggesting measures to reduce high HT-LT ratio.
Kansal said that all the measures being taken by the government were aimed at eliminating power losses and removing bottlenecks to uninterrupted and efficient power distribution in the region.
He called for unification of various automatic metering and billing systems in use and their unification for seamless transition to more efficient billing methodology.