Disconnection drives aimed to stem power theft: KPDCL

Srinagar, Nov 24: Continuing its pursuit to obtain pending arrears from defaulting consumers, Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL) collected revenue of Rs.6.63 crore on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Corporation’s inspections to check power pilferage breached the 1000 mark with penalties imposed to the tune of Rs.7.95 lakh on Thursday.
Elaborating on details, a KPDCL spokesperson today stated that out of 1017 inspections carried out in Kashmir Division, 161 were conducted in Circle I Srinagar, 182 in Circle II Srinagar, 301 in Circle Ganderbal, 147 in Circle Pulwama, 66 in Circle Bijbehara and 160 in Circle Sopore. Around 245 KW load was added across 6 Circles of the Corporation during the drives.
A penalty of Rs.7.95 lakh was imposed across all 19 Electric Divisions on those found hooking wires on bare conductor and bypassing the meters. Meanwhile, 52 Domestic Transformers (DTs) were also reported damaged on Thursday due to overloading, down from 64 reported on Wednesday.
The spokesperson further stated that another 1048 domestic, commercial and industrial connections were also disconnected for non-payment of energy dues which were pending for more than three months. This includes 731 domestic, 266 commercial and 31 industrial consumers.
The spokesman stated that the inspection and disconnection drives against power theft and defaulting consumers respectively will help the Corporation in sticking to the curtailment schedule.
While KPDCL received 52 damaged DTs in its various workshops on Thursday, 61 transformers were also repaired for replacement, to comply with the stipulated timelines fixed by the Government. “As many as 74 transformers are in different stages of repair, 27 others are in ovens at Central Workshop Pampore,” the spokesperson added, while quoting Executive Engineer, CWS, Pampore.
Expressing concern over the repeat damage of repaired transformers, the spokesperson urged the consumers to use power judiciously within their agreed load, failing which the DTs will get damaged again, thus causing inconvenience to genuine consumers. “Cases of repeat damage to repaired transformers has been reported from Central Workshop at Pampore and a few of the divisional-level workshops. This trend will affect replacement timeline fixed by the Government,” the spokesperson warned while advocating strict adherence to load capacity of DTs.
KPDCL advised all domestic, commercial and industrial consumers to pay their pending energy dues or face permanent disconnection. KPDCL collected Rs.6.63 crore as pending energy dues on Thursday from the consumers. With the Corporation going into overdrive, the revenue realization figures are likely to go up further in the coming few weeks.