Riyaz Bhat
Srinagar, Jan 23: A day after gusty winds and heavy snowfall in many areas of Kashmir, Power Development Department (PDD) Saturday restored over 85 per cent electricity in the affected areas.
Till 8 PM, KPDCL was distributing a load of nearly over 1500 Megawatts (MWs) against the usual load of 1850 MWs.
An official said that since Friday morning till 8Pm of Saturday, KPDCL has restored 81.03 percent of 11kV feeders with eight feeders functioning 100 percent.
The official also said that out of the total 1302 11kV feeders, at least 1055 were running smoothly, 82 were under fault and 165 feeders were off due to the outage in 33KV lines or due to the fault in the respective receiving stations.
In case of 33kV lines, the official said that KPDCL has restored at least 95 percent of lines with seven out of ten districts with 100 percent restoration.
It also said that out of the total of 135 lines of 33kV, at least 128 were up and 7 were down.
PDD officials added that among the worst affected areas, it has started to restore the electricity. In SSD Tangmarg, only 6 percent of electricity was restored till 8Pm followed by 10 percent in Electrical Distribution (ED) Kupwara, 44 percent in ED Handwara, 49 percent in ED Baramulla and 52 percent in ED Sopore respectively.
About the 100 percent restoration of 33kV lines, PDD said that it fully restored STD Ist and STD 2nd of Srinagar, STD 2nd in Budgam, STD Ganderbal and Bandipora, STD Pulwama and Shopian, STD Bijbehara for Kulgam and Anantnag districts respectively.
In the meantime, DIPR in a statement issued said that KPDCL machinery is deployed in the field and working with full efficiency and determination to restore power supply to all affected areas.
According to the official statement by KPDCL, high-speed gusty winds and heavy Snowfall have severely damaged the electrical network in many locations. “Restoration could not be undertaken yesterday in several areas due to road blockades caused by heavy snowfall and limited accessibility.”
The restoration process, which is being carried out on a war footing, is exhaustive in nature and involves clearing dismantled rooftops from electrical lines, repairing HT and LT networks, and replacing damaged distribution transformers (DTs).
