Srinagar, Nov 16: With the onset of winter, the power situation in Kashmir has once again come under strain as electricity demand has touched 1850 MW – the highest so far this season.

According to official figures from the Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Limited (KPDCL), the corporation is presently meeting an average demand of 1535 to 1800 MW, while the peak winter demand is expected to climb to around 2000 MW in the coming weeks as temperatures dip further.

KPDCL caters to around 12.44 lakh registered consumers, predominantly domestic, through a network of 338 receiving substations (33/11kV), 1292 high-tension (HT) feeders, and 47,886 distribution transformers spread across the Valley.

Officials said preparations are in place to meet the rising load through regulated curtailment schedules and grid management.

“Our load management plan ensures uninterrupted power to areas with better compliance and reduced losses,” a KPDCL official said.

As per KPDCL’s revised schedule, feeders with an Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) loss margin below 15 percent will experience no load shedding.

Areas where losses are between 15 and 40 percent face two hours of curtailment daily – one hour each in the morning and evening.

Feeders with losses above 40 percent are subject to four hours of cuts, while areas beyond the Loss Control Point (LCP) face six hours or more of scheduled power outages.

Officials said the curtailment policy aims to incentivise compliance and curb power theft, which remains rampant in some regions.

According to the Jammu and Kashmir Power Development Corporation (JKPDC), Jammu and Kashmir is currently importing over 2,180 MW of electricity from external generating companies to bridge the gap between demand and local generation.

Against an installed generation capacity of around 3500 MW, powerhouses in both state and central sectors are generating barely 900 to 1000 MW at present – a staggering 65 percent decline compared to the summer months.

Of the total installed capacity, 1140 MW comes from J&K’s own projects, including Baglihar I and II (900 MW) on the Chenab, Lower Jhelum (110 MW), and Upper Sindh-II (110 MW) on the Jhelum.

The remaining 2300 MW is contributed by central sector projects such as Salal, Dul Hasti, Uri-I and II, and Kishanganga, operated by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC). However, with water levels in rivers dropping sharply in winter, power output from these hydroelectric projects reduces drastically.

“In peak winter, combined output from all plants in J&K falls to around 1000 MW, less than one-third of their total rated capacity,” a senior KPDCL official said. “The fall in river discharge directly impacts hydro generation, forcing us to depend on expensive power imports to maintain supply.”

Adding to the crisis are J&K’s high Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses, estimated at around 45 percent, among the highest in the country.

Officials say that nearly half of the electricity supplied either goes unbilled or remains unpaid.

“This severely affects our revenue recovery and compels the government to fund the deficit through budgetary support,” a KPDCL officer said. “Reducing AT&C losses is critical not only for improving the financial health of the sector but also for ensuring a steady supply.”

Kupwara, Nov 16: Advisor to the Chief Minister, Nasir Aslam Wani, today visited the ancestral home of slain Police Inspector Shah Asrar-ul-Haq at Muqam Shah Wali in Kupwara to offer condolences.

The Advisor spent time with the bereaved family members, expressed profound grief over the tragic loss and prayed for eternal peace to the departed soul.

He assured the family that the Government stands firmly with them in this hour of unimaginable pain.

Srinagar, Nov 16: MLA Pulwama Waheed-ur-Rehman Para visited Nowgam blast victim Javaid Mansoor Rather’s home in Hari Parigam on Sunday. The lawmaker met with the deceased’s parents, wife, and young daughter, offering condolences and assuring institutional support.

Speaking to the family, Para said: “Javaid was a dedicated professional and a humble soul. His service to the Crime Branch was invaluable. This tragedy has taken away a promising young man, and the entire Pulwama district mourns with the family.”

MLA Waheed Para urged the government to provide immediate long-term support for his wife and child apart from the ex-gratia relief. Para further emphasised the need for enhanced safety measures for personnel handling explosive materials, calling the deaths “a painful reminder of the risks our officers face even outside combat operations.”

Srinagar, Nov 16: A 23-year-old youth died of electrocution while working on a high-density plantation project in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Sunday, officials said.

An official told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that the youth sustained a severe electric shock during installation work at Trich village of Kakapora area in Pulwama.

He was identified as Uzair Gulzar (23), son of Gulzar Ahmad, a resident of Trich Pulwama.

Meanwhile, police have taken up investigations into the incident.

Srinagar/New Delhi, Nov 16: Preliminary investigations into the accidental explosion that ripped through the Nowgam police station late Friday night, killing nine people, suggest that the use of excessive lighting by the forensic team may have triggered the massive blast, officials said Sunday.

The explosion, which authorities maintain was an accident and not a terror attack, occurred around 11:20 pm while a team was extracting samples from the final boxes of seized explosive material transported from Al-Falah University in Faridabad, Haryana.

The area has been visited by teams from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory and experts from the elite National Security Guards for collecting samples.

The officials believe the last few boxes contained a liquid substance — likely a mixture of Acetophenone, Hydrogen Peroxide, and Sulphuric Acid — and in order to examine the liquid substance closely, the lighting arrangement was scaled up, leading to the massive explosion.

While Acetophenone itself is a common industrial chemical, it is a crucial precursor for creating Acetone Peroxide, a highly dangerous and sensitive improvised explosive.

The combination of the chemicals, coupled with external heat from the intensified lighting, or potential fumes from the Sulphuric Acid, may have caused the premature detonation, the officials said.

Both Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Nalin Prabhat and Joint Secretary (Kashmir) Prashant Lokhande had issued identical statements on Saturday, firmly dismissing speculation of a terror attack.

“Due to the unstable and sensitive nature of the recovery, the sampling process, the handling was being done with extreme caution, with utmost caution by the FSL team,” Prabhat and Lokhande had said.

“However, unfortunately, during this course, last night around 11.20 pm, an accidental explosion took place,” they had said in statements before the media in Srinagar and New Delhi.

The sampling of the voluminous 360 kg cache of chemicals — including Ammonium Nitrate, Potassium Nitrate and Sulphur — had been underway for two days. The materials were transported to the Nowgam police station because it was the registration point for the original case. The massive blast severely damaged the police station building and affected adjacent structures.

Among the deceased was Mohammad Shafi Parray (47), a popular local tailor and the sole breadwinner for his family. Many politicians visited his house and assured assistance to his family.

Also killed was SIA Inspector Israr Ahmad Shah, a 2011 police force entrant known as a soft-spoken and helpful officer, survived by his wife, two young children and elderly parents in Kupwara district.

The entire ‘white-collar’ terror module was busted by Srinagar Police after it began an investigation into the pasting of posters that threatened police and security forces on walls in Bunpora, Nowgam, in mid-October.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Srinagar) Dr G V Sundeep Chakravarthy personally led the investigation, and the CCTV footage analysis led to the arrest of the first three suspects — Arif Nisar Dar alias Sahil, Yasir-ul-Ashraf, and Maqsood Ahmad Dar alias Shahid.

Their interrogation led to the arrest of Maulvi Irfan Ahmad, a former paramedic turned Imam, who allegedly supplied the posters and radicalised the doctors.

The trail led the investigators to Al Falah University in Faridabad, where Dr Muzzafar Ganaie and Dr Shaheen Sayeed were arrested, and the huge chemical cache was seized.

The investigators believe a core trio of doctors — Dr Ganaie, Umar Nabi (the driver of an explosives-laden car that exploded near the Red Fort on November 10, killing 13 people), and Muzzaffar Rather (absconding) — were running the module.