Lt Governor reviews Summer preparedness of Power Department

Jammu, May 26: Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha Wednesday chaired a high level meeting to review the preparedness of Power Department for Jammu Division in view of the ongoing summer season.
During the meeting, which was attended by senior officers of Jammu Power Distribution Corporation Limited (JPDCL), and J&K Power Transmission Corporation Limited at Raj Bhavan, the Lt Governor passed various important directions to streamline the power transmission and distribution system in the UT.
Stressing on speeding up the process of replacement of damaged transformers to avoid inconvenience to the people, the Lt Governor fixed an 8 hour deadline for replacement of damaged transformers in urban areas, while rural areas will get transformers replaced within 48 hours.
Adopt a futuristic approach, make procurements in advance and fix responsibilities for delays, besides taking corrective measures to provide consumers with the requisite facilities, the Lt Governor asked the Power Department.
He further emphasized on urgent re-examining of short-term and medium-term measures to minimize disruption in supply, network resilience, besides developing better synergy between officials at all levels.
In order to make the repair and replacement working more effective, the meeting decided that the transformers would get a Unique Identification number with details of Installations and repairs. One month’s timeline was fixed for preparing an online system for inventory management, executing a meter reading application for streamlining the process of power consumption, billing & collection.
The Lt Governor asked the concerned officers to rationalize the buffer stock of inventory in all districts in order to reduce the replacement time.
“Speed up the process of replacement of non-functional power infrastructure. Prioritize areas with more power consumption; put power curtailment schedules in public domain and address the issues of power outage in villages”, the Lt Governor directed the officers.
Directions were also passed to senior officials for monitoring of up-gradation work of grid stations, strengthening of distribution mechanism, transmission lines, while concentrating on immediate needs of power supply, focusing on maintenance of transmission and distribution networks.
The Lt Governor also directed the officers to take all necessary measures to reduce the transformers’ damage rate, besides upgrading the infrastructure to reduce instances of disruption causing power outages.
While taking the status of power supply to oxygen generation plants, the Lt Governor directed the concerned officials to ensure uninterrupted power supply with backup to the oxygen plants.
The Lt Governor further directed for making the response mechanism for power restoration prompt and more effective to ensure optimum power supply to every household in the summers.
Meanwhile, the Lt Governor took a detailed overview of the total Installed Transformation Capacities and peak demand met in Jammu Division during Summers 2020 and anticipated for Summer 2021.
He further assessed the present status of category-wise power consumers, district-wise power demand & supply position in Jammu, buffer stock of distribution transformers, augmentation of receiving stations, procurement of spares & inventory, status of branch cutting/ trimming of trees
During the meeting, the Lt Governor also took stock of the implementation of directions passed earlier pertaining to strengthening of the Power sector in J&K.
Principal Secretary PDD, Rohit Kansal briefed the Lt Governor about preparedness of the department for the summer season, besides status of various projects for augmentation of power infrastructure in Jammu Division, including commissioning of 220 KV LILO-I Interconnection with PGCIL Jatwal , construction of 160 MVA 220/66 KV GSS Ghatti, Kathua along with its associated 220 Kv D/C Thein- Hiranagar Transmission line, construction of 160 MVA 220/66 KV GSS, Samba along with its associated 220 Kv D/C Jatwal-Samba Transmission line, capacity addition works at GSS Barn , capacity addition works at GSS Canal, capacity addition works at GSS Gladni.
BVR Subrahmanyam, Chief Secretary; Arun Kumar Mehta, Financial Commissioner, Finance Department; Rohit Kansal, Principal Secretary, Power Development Department & Information Department; Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to Lt Governor; Jagmohan Sharma, Chairman JPDCL; Gurmeet Singh, MD JPDCL; Chief Engineers and other concerned officers attended the meeting.