CS reviews functioning of Power Dev Deptt

Jammu: The Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta Friday chaired a meeting to review the functioning of the Power Development Department.
Principal Secretary, Power Development Department, Managing Directors, Jammu/Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited, Chief Engineers, and other senior officers of the Department attended the meeting.
It was informed that in the current financial year so far, Kashmir registered 64,588 million units of energy consumption, which is 7.98% higher than the previous year’s consumption of 59,796.19 million units. Similarly, there is a 17.33% increase in the peak load consumption in Kashmir which indicates the rapidly increasing demand for electricity and its peak load over last year.
The Chief Secretary reviewed the earlier directions of replacement of damaged transformers within 12 hours in main towns and 24 hours in other areas and directed strict implementation of the timelines. In order to monitor unscheduled cuts, he directed submission of daily reports related to the system average interruption frequency index (SAIFI) and system average interruption duration index (SAIDI); number of damaged transformers and time taken for replacements.
The Chief Secretary directed the Department to rationally analyze the supply and demand of electricity in various regions of the Union territories and raise awareness on the feeder-wise authorized electricity drawal limit. Besides, the Department was also asked to undertake an extensive IEC campaign in both print and social media and garner public support for judicious use of electricity in collaboration with the Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies.
“The responsible use of electricity will minimize transformer damage on account of overloading besides reducing the unscheduled power cuts” Dr. Mehta said. He asked the Department to proactively manage the power load.
To make public grievance redressal prompt and efficient, especially in times of power failure, the Department was asked to publicize the helpline numbers established in this regard and issue SMS alerts and notifications to such consumers whose mobile numbers are available in the PDD database; on all scheduled and unscheduled power cuts.
Further, the Department was also asked to fix the responsibility of unauthorized connections/ power pilferage especially from feeders reporting electricity load above the permissible limit; on the concerned line staff and take disciplinary action for their inefficiency in taking corrective measures. The Divisional and District Administrations will also be involved in the enforcement efforts. It was further directed that responsibility be fixed for transformer outages.
The Chief Secretary directed regular surveillance and enforcement drives to disconnect illegal power connections so that consumers are able to get power without undue interruptions.