Make power sector robust, resilient: Lt Governor to officials

Jammu, Mar 27: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha chaired a high-level meeting to review the power scenario in Jammu Kashmir, today at Civil Secretariat.
The Lt Governor appraised the multi-pronged strategies to meet the high electricity demand in the summer season and directed for integrating reforms for making the Power sector robust and resilient.
The Lt Governor directed for effective enforcement through a dedicated enforcement wing for the detection of theft of electricity, wrong metering, enquiring into public complaints, unauthorized extensions in load and surprise checking.
The Lt Governor also directed for immediate steps to ensure functioning of all the meters on 11 kV, and repair of the damaged meters within one month.
Smart meters must be saturated feeder-wise to protect consumer interests and quality standards. It will empower the consumers and help them to conserve energy and usage in an efficient manner, the Lt Governor said.
The Lt Governor also sought a report on steps taken to reduce AT&C losses. He further directed the department to fix the responsibility and draw up an action plan for reducing the losses within a specific timeframe.
The Lt Governor emphasized on training and capacity building of PDD staff; online registration of new consumers; massive awareness drive; proper maintenance of power infrastructure and constitution of teams of officers for monitoring physical condition of equipment.
The Lt Governor passed explicit directions for ensuring power supply to new industrial estates and railway tunnels.
The Lt Governor also reviewed the steps taken towards quality control; completion of languishing projects, revenue realization and network strengthening.
H. Rajesh Prasad, Principal Secretary, Power Development Department briefed the chair on the effective measures taken to bridge the demand and supply gap.
It was informed that additional capacities were created during the winter to enable peak demand and 10 percent more power was supplied as compared to last year.
Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary; Dr Mandeep Kumar Bhandari, Principal Secretary to Lt Governor; Shiv Anant Tayal, Managing Director, JPDCL; Ch. Mohd. Yasin, Managing Director, KPDCL; Chief Engineers and senior officials attended the meeting, in person and through virtual mode.