Hooking, power theft | KPDCL accelerates night inspections to combat outages, transformer damages

Srinagar, Nov 22: The Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL) has accelerated the pace of night patrolling and inspections across all 10 districts of the Kashmir division to combat incidents of massive hooking and power theft by consumers that often result in outages and damage to distribution transformers.

An official spokesman in a statement issued here said that KPDCL also warned that legal action should be taken against offenders found involved in rampant hooking and connecting electricity lines of their own.

While incidents of hooking in metered areas on bare conductors have witnessed a steep rise over the last month, consumption of energy by consumers in unmetered areas over and above their agreed load has also sharply grown, putting a huge strain on the power curtailment schedule.

In unmetered areas, the usage of power by consumers is three to four times their registered load, leading to frequent DT damages and low voltage conditions, thereby resulting in distress cuts.

Giving details in a statement released on Wednesday, an official spokesperson said that extensive inspection drives had been conducted by KPDCL in the first seven months of the current financial year. “A total of 53,016 inspections have been conducted till October 31 this year, which includes 2370 by the Central Squad targeting high-end commercial and industrial consumers,” he said. “A penalty of Rs 12.68 crore has been imposed for unauthorised power use in terms of Section 126 of the Electricity Act.”

The spokesman said that special teams had been constituted across all 6 circles of KPDCL for late-night inspections to book those resorting to illegal hooking and using crude heating gadgets including banned nichrome-based, in a bid to reduce soaring energy demand in winter.

On a tip-off through social media, inspection teams from Electric Division II, Srinagar, conducted surprise inspections in Ikhrajpora, KP Bagh and Sadaat Colony areas of ESD Chanapora and booked many offenders for illegal hooking.

Fines in terms of Section 126 of the Electricity Act for unauthorised use of power have been imposed on such consumers.

The KPDCL spokesman also attributed damage to Distribution Transformers (DTs), LT AB cables and Distribution Boxes to illegal hooking by consumers and the use of crude heating gadgets.

He said that 64 DTs were damaged on Tuesday alone, a direct outcome of heavy loading of the electric transformers, over and above their approved capacity.

“While 64 DTs were reported damaged on November 21, 67 DTs were also repaired and replaced by a central workshop at Pampore and workshops across all 19 electric divisions in Kashmir,” he said.

The KPDCL assured the consumers that all DTs were serviced and maintained to provide a smooth power supply, provided they were not overloaded due to power pilferage and illegal hooking.

The spokesman assured the registered consumers of improvement in the power situation if they use power judiciously as per agreed load, especially during peak time, in the mornings and evenings.

“Cases of power theft increase in winter months, which leads to severe overloading of the distribution system at certain places, resulting in unscheduled power cuts,” he said.

In a bid to improve revenue realisation, Circle I, Srinagar, disconnected 448 commercial and 147 industrial units on Tuesday for having failed to pay energy dues for the last three months amounting to Rs 13.50 crore.

The commercial and industrial units whose power connections were disconnected are situated in Sheikhbagh, Dalgate, Habbakadal, Nishat, Khunmoh in Electric Division I and Khanyar, Hawal, KK Moulla, Rainawari and Zakura in ED IV.

The spokesman further said that KPDCL was targeting improvement in billing and collection efficiency to improve revenue realisation and bring down AT&C losses to the levels fixed by the government under the RDSS norms.