SERC concerned over power outages in Valley
Asks PDD to inform it about unscheduled cuts every month People consuming electricity beyond agreed load: PDD CE
Taking a strong note of unscheduled power cuts in the Valley, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) has asked the Power Development Department (PDD) to inform it every month about the reasons the consumers have to face frequent power outages.
In a letter to Chief Engineer Maintenance and Rural Electrification (M&RE) last month, SERC Chairman had directed him that the Commission should be kept informed about the unscheduled power cuts every month and revision of the power tariff in the state.
The directive has come as people in the Valley are facing lot of inconvenience due to the frequent power cuts.
SERC has asked PDD to record unscheduled power curtailments and give reasons for resorting to such acts. “The reasons should be communicated to SERC on a monthly basis alongwith the tariff petition each year in a consolidated form.”
Officials said the unscheduled outages are being recorded now. “The power cuts are being resorted to by the PDD as people are consuming the electricity more than the agreed load.”
Chief Engineer M&RE, Bashir Ahmad Khan, said while near 7 lakh consumers have entered into load agreement for 600 MWs of electricity, the consumption was over 1100 MWs.
“Three years back, we had announced voluntary load disclosure scheme for the consumers but the response was negligible,” he said.
Khan said PDD has to resort to unscheduled power curtailment as people are consuming electricity beyond the agreed load.
The PDD has signed an agreement of a minimum of 0.5 Kw consumption of electricity per month with the consumers. However, officials said the consumption was much higher.
“The agreement should have been on hourly basis, but there is no ceiling on the hour-to-hour consumption. The agreement has been signed with the consumers on monthly basis so that a minimum a consumer can use is the 0.5 Kw for a month irrespective of the hours of usage of the electricity,” said a state PDD official.
Khan said the revision of agreement with the consumers is an ongoing process and department is also taking punitive action for pilferage of electricity.
“We are fining 4,000 to 5,000 consumers on a yearly basis for violation of load agreements and for resorting to pilferage of electricity,” he added.
