Power outages caused by gusty winds last Saturday restored fully by Sunday morning

Srinagar: Gusty winds on Saturday last week not only hit the standing crops but also plunged valley areas into complete darkness for not less four hours and the restoration of the power supply within hours brought respite to the hapless population in Srinagar city and majority of the Valley areas.
Reports said felling of tree branches resulted in earth faults on the distribution feeders (33 kV & 11 kV), more so in Central and North Kashmir and Pulwama district of South Kashmir, resulting in power outages. In the worst hit areas the tree trunks brought down by gusty winds resulted in damage to the distribution infrastructure also as conductors, Pole posts, power frames too were severely damaged.
As winds continued to lash the valley, occurrences of faults increased by 8.00 P.M Saturday evening the load plummeted to 354 MW against the 1050-1100 MW load served during normal conditions. Officials “told Kashmir Horizon” emergency restoration squads, already in place, at various divisions were activated and they started patrolling for the purposes of the fault clearance of the affected lines when the intensity of the wind was reduced. “As per standard operating procedure, priority was first given to the fault clearance of distribution lines feeding essential installations lie hospitals, water supply Schemes, dewatering installations, and other such public emergency locations”, the officials said, adding that “restoration work was carried well beyond midnight and most of the affected distribution lines were restored and charged”. They also said that as the faults on the lines were cleared, load served increased. Revealing that at few locations, faults could not be cleared due to severe damage to the distribution infrastructure, officials said that the restoration works were called off at 12:30 PM and again resumed in wee hours of Sunday as load served was of the order of 1077 MW (Almost normal value) by 9.45 A.M . “By 12:00 Noon Sunday, all the 33 kV and main 11 kV lines of the valley, barring 33 kV TRC-Rajbagh Tap line and some 11 kV tap lines in rural areas were restored and charged”, the officials said , adding that “33 kV TRC-Rajbagh Tap line which had suffered Pole frame damage near Abdullah Bridge restored/charged at 4:00 PM on Sunday”.