Srinagar, Jan 27 (KNO): Unlike previous years, the efforts made by the Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL) has brought relief among the consumers across the Valley post snowfall as the electricity was restored within just 6 hours after the recent snowfall covered most parts of Kashmir last week.
As per the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the consumers from different parts of the Valley said that the power scenario has improved to a large extent this year.
They added that the work done by the KPDCL on the ground post snowfall is quite appreciable as the electricity remained affected for just 5-7 hours following which the grid stations and further damages witnessed during the snowfall were repaired.
Officials within the KPDCL informed that the men and machinery was already kept in a ready mode to ensure that the people don’t suffer after the fresh snowfall. “The administration had directed the department to keep men and machinery ready to tackle any situation,” they said.
Following the directions, the KPDCL established control rooms and took other measures as well in wake of the weather advisory to ensure that the people don’t face any hardships post snowfall.
The consumers said that it was for the first time that the electricity didn’t remain affected for a longer period and the ground staff was seen repairing the damaged lines and reviving stations soon after the snowfall occurred.
An official document available with KNO said that Kashmir valley witnessed its first snowfall of this winter season on the night of 3rd January, which resulted in a number of 11kv & 33kv feeder outages, particularly in north Kashmir.
“After snowfall on 3rd January, Kashmir Valley received heavy snowfall on Friday afternoon, the 7th January 2022 which continued more or less steadily till 9th January. Swift Restoration Teams/ Squads, which were stationed at the Control Rooms set up at Divisional and Sub Divisional level, swung in action after occurrence of snowfall and fault rectification was initiated in the extreme weather conditions.”
“It was ensured that the restoration process was swift and due to the resolute efforts of field staff, 95% restoration was achieved within 8 hours of fresh snowfall event while the remaining 5%, pertaining to far flung areas, was restored within 24 hours,” it said.
“Due to overnight snowfall of 3rd Jan 2022, the load was reduced to 1394 MW (at 9:00 AM) against normal of 1550-1600 MW, which was restored back by the evening. Similarly, load which had reduced to 1321 MW on 6th Jan (9:00 AM) was restored back to normal (1590 MW at 7:00 PM),” it added.
“The major impact of snowfall was encountered by heavy snowfall during the intervening night of 7th & 8th Jan, due to which load plummeted to 635 MW (at 6:30 AM). The load was however restored to 90% of normal by evening (1306 MW at 7:00 PM). However overnight steady snowfall resulted in recurrence of faults which were cleared swiftly. By 9th of January evening, normal load was served (Above 1500 MW).”
“Even during all the snowfall days, except 8th of January, KPDCL through its efforts and swift restoration was able to supply more daily energy (more than 350 MUs per day) than the previous year,” it said—(KNO)