Kashmir: Despite harsh weather, KPDCL manages to provide uninterrupted power supply

KPDCL strengthened its 24x7 helpline/grievance centre for the general public to address their grievances on a priority basis.

According to Aijaz Ahmad Dar, Chief Engineer of KPDCL, 95 percent of power supply was restored within 10 hours and all power supply was restored within 24 hours on Jan. 3-4, when the Kashmir valley experienced heavy snowfall.

The local residents of North Kashmir said, this was the first-time rural areas received power supply within 24 hours.

Abdul Gani, a local resident of Kupwara area, said,“Previously, power was cut off in remote areas for days at a time. However this winter the supply was restored within no time which needs to be appreciated."

As per a senior official of KPDCL, "The department this time pressed men to work on a war footing to restore the electricity in all Kashmir villages."

Even during the significant snowfall witnessed in the first week of January, the KPDCL never permitted the load capacity to dip below 800 MW this winter, they said.

To ensure smooth and fault-free carrying capacity of electric cables, extensive tree branch pruning was carried out.

Damaged electric poles were reinstalled and restored throughout Kashmir reducing transmission and distribution (T&D) losses.

“The damaged transformers are quickly repaired. All of this is feasible because of the real-time monitoring system that we developed this winter. Task forces have been established to search locations and resolve technical issues," they explained.