‘J&K power grid in dark, lack data visibility’

Jammu Tawi, Nov 29: In view of ‘non-availability of real-time telemetry data’, authorities have said that the power control rooms in Jammu and Kashmir are unable to monitor and see as to what is happening at their own power stations and substations.

According to the news agency, Northern Regional Power Committee (NRPC) while taking up the issues of telemetry in J&K has said, “Reliability and accuracy of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) data and its associated communication system is essential for monitoring and coordinating operations of a large electricity grid.”

“It helps in visualization and management of the critical grid element failure, grid incident in real time and minimizes the possibility of any untoward incidents or disturbances,” NRPC said.

The official documents of the committee further said, “Real-Time data availability from Jammu and Kashmir is very poor. There is zero visibility of data in J&K stations at J&K and NRLDC. With poor monitoring of data, it is very difficult to monitor the grid in an efficient manner.”

The committee also said that the matter has been discussed in various Technical Co-Ordination Committee (TCC) and Technical Sub-Committee for Testing and Commissioning (TeST) meetings. “But there is no improvement of the same.”

“Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) were tested locally and commissioned without data availability at the Control Centre. Due to non-availability of data, JKPDD is not able to monitor its drawal from grid and its generation,” it reads.

NRPC further mentioned that J&K is dependent on central sector data for monitoring of drawal.

Pertinently, in the first week of September this year KNO reported that in Jammu and Kashmir, real-time telemetry data continues to remain unavailable at both JK-SLDC and Northern Regional Load Despatch Centre (NRLDC), raising concerns about increased risks of data breaches and other cyber threats.

According to official documents, the NRLDC representative had highlighted that till that time “real-time telemetry data from Jammu and Kashmir remains unavailable at both JK-SLDC and NRLDC.”—(KNO)