Frequent Unscheduled Power Cuts Hit Jammu Amid Rising Temperatures
Power cuts are not confined to the Jammu plains; residents of the Chenab Valley are raising similar concerns, reports Amir Tantray
By ETV Bharat Jammu & Kashmir Team
Published : May 20, 2026 at 6:38 PM IST
Jammu: Amid rising temperatures in Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir, residents are enduring frequent unscheduled power cuts that are worsening their hardships. These outages affect every part of the city, its outskirts, and various districts, occurring both day and night.
Sajad Hussain, a resident of Jammu’s Sunjwan area, said there is no fixed schedule for power cuts by the Jammu Power Distribution Corporation (JPDCL), and the duration of outages is unpredictable.
“This morning, the electricity was snapped at around 4 am and restored after six hours, making it hard for people to sleep amid scorching heat,” Hussain said. “It also kept children irritable as they could not sleep peacefully,” he added.
Another resident, Nand Kishore Khajuria of the Roop Nagar area, demanded that the JPDCL should make arrangements for an uninterrupted power supply to all the areas of Jammu during the summer.
“We require more electricity due to high temperatures, but we have been forced to go through unscheduled power cuts. The government must ensure a hassle-free power supply to all districts,” he said.
Power cuts are not confined to the Jammu plains; residents of the Chenab Valley are raising similar concerns. Despite the region generating hundreds of crores in revenue for the governments of India and Jammu and Kashmir through power production, locals face electricity shortages both in winter and summer. The residents have raised the issue several times but to no avail.
Mehraj Banday, president of the Traders’ Association Doda, said, “The power development department is the worst department in present times due to unscheduled power cuts, hefty bills and rude behaviour of its employees.”
Another resident, Mudasir Bashir, said that despite having all the resources from the Chenab Valley, the government was not providing the uninterrupted electricity to the people. “Instead of the benefits, we get darkness and huge bills even,” he said.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, JPDCL Chief Engineer Arshad Hussain Reshi said the two months are crucial amid the rising temperatures and increasing demand.
“During the peak hours, our load goes up to 1550 to 1560 megawatts, and on average around 1300 megawatts of power is required in the whole Jammu region,” he said.
Detailing the electricity curtailment, he said there were three categories. “Those areas with zero to 15 per cent Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses don’t have any curtailment. In the areas where losses are between 15 and 40 per cent, the power curtailment is for two hours, and in areas having over 40 per cent AT&C losses, the power curtailment is for four hours,” Reshi said.
Responding to the problem of “unscheduled power cuts”, the chief engineer said that those were happening due to constraints in the system. “Due to the temperature rise, transformers heat up, and at times receiving stations also heat up, due to which unscheduled power cuts happen,” he added.
Also Read
