Managing the Load
As the shadow of winters lengthens the demand for power increases. That is the time when the concerned agency, Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL), is faced with a complex challenge. It is not just the enormity of the task that poses difficulty, there are complexities as well. The simplest way to meet the challenge would have been to acquire right quantum of electricity, but that is not such an easy thing. For a place like J&K right now, and earlier too, it isn’t never easy to get as much power as needed when the demand peaks.
Right now KPDCL is meeting an average demand of 1535 to 1800 MW, as the front-page news story in this newspaper on Monday this week already underlined. But the demand, as of now, touches 1850 MW. That means the upper limit of the KPDCL’s capacity to provide power already stands surpassed. And the scheme worsens once the demand peaks around 2000 MW. In such a situation there is, mathematically speaking, no other way than resorting to curtailments.
Ideally we should have, by now, been in a position to meet that extra burden. The oft repeated argument that we are bestowed with so much of natural resource that is needed to generate power, yet deficient in power, is not enough to explain our situation. That is a generic and at times an emotional statement. Fact of the matter is that there are many other factors that contribute to this perennial shortage of power. Our political dispensations, our concerned officials, our general attitude towards availing government services, and many more elements have gone into weaving this situation of J&K being a power deficient region. To achieve the larger end and the bigger goal of self sufficiency in this case, there is a need of leadership at all levels – politics, governance and civil society.
For now, the task is to manage the deficiency in a way that it hurts the least. The model of curtailment that is being followed now makes sense, as it incentivises compliance. But there is a complexity in this. Those who strictly adhere to the regulations, don’t resort to any misuse of electricity, but fall in a zone that registers higher percentage of losses are penalised for no fault of theirs. KPDCL must do some thinking on this. After all technology is now getting so refined that it might become possible to link the supplies with smaller zones, or may be someday with an individual customer.
