Solar Brief Local

Kashmir's power cuts run up to 8 hours a day. Ask the hours before quoting solar

Since 17 October, KPDCL has cut power across the Kashmir Valley, feeder by feeder: half an hour a day where little of the power sent is lost, up to 8 hours where most of it is lost or never paid for. A plain on-grid rooftop switches off whenever the grid does, so on the longest-cut feeders it gives a home nothing for hours every day. Before you quote, ask which feeder the house is on and how long it is cut.

By Tanay Bhatia, Co-founder, SolentraPublished Updated

What happenedKPDCL's winter power cuts, feeder by feeder, from 17 October 2026

Since 17 October 2026, KPDCL, the power company for the Kashmir Valley, has run a revised winter schedule of power cuts, Kashmir Life reported that day. The cuts are set feeder by feeder; a feeder is the 11 kV line that serves a neighbourhood or a group of villages. In Srinagar, metered and cabled feeders are cut for half an hour to 3 hours a day. Rural feeders across the Valley that are neither metered nor cabled are cut for 6 to 8 hours. Hospitals, water supply and other essential feeders get no cut or half an hour, and industrial feeders, including those for Lassipora Industrial Estate, get none.

How long each feeder is cut depends on how much of the power sent down it is lost or never paid for, The Kashmir Images reported on 18 October. Where more than 65 of every 100 units are lost, the cut is up to 8 hours a day; from 40.5 to 65, 6 hours; from 15 to 40.5, 3 hours; and up to 15, half an hour. Kashmir Vision set out the same bands on 22 October and 27 October. The Kashmir Life and Kashmir Images reports both say KPDCL asked consumers to check its feeder-wise schedule for the hours on their own line.

The cuts come as supply runs short. On 28 October, unnamed officials quoted by Kashmir Life and Northlines said Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh may need 3,813 MW in November against 3,190 MW available, a projected shortfall of 623 MW. For Kashmir alone, Kashmir Life's report puts peak demand at about 1,300 to 1,350 MW, against 1,000 to 1,150 MW available. One official said that when supply fluctuates, “we enforce grid curtailment”.

None of this changes how a plain on-grid rooftop works. Its inverter switches off whenever the grid does, even in full sun. That is a safety rule, so that panels do not feed power into a line that workers believe is dead, as our story on Punjab's September power cuts explains. On a feeder cut for 6 to 8 hours a day, a plain on-grid system gives the house nothing in those hours. The table below lines up KPDCL's bands with what we would quote.

KPDCL's winter cut plan from 17 October 2026, and what we would quote
Lost or unpaid, of 100Daily cutWhat to quote
More than 65Up to 8 hoursBattery for essentials
40.5 to 656 hoursBattery for essentials
15 to 40.53 hoursBattery optional
Up to 1530 minutesPlain on-grid

Our summary of the plan as The Kashmir Images (18 October) and Kashmir Vision (22 and 27 October) reported it. Essential feeders get no cut or half an hour, and industrial feeders none (Kashmir Life, 17 October). The last column is our own advice, not KPDCL's. Each feeder's hours are on KPDCL's feeder-wise schedule, and they could change, so check the customer's feeder before you quote.

What our tracker showsKashmir Valley subsidy rooftops, and what the portal cannot see

Our tracker reads the PM Surya Ghar national portal every day. It counts home rooftops under the scheme, by district, and nothing else. On the 29 October reading, the Kashmir Valley's 10 districts had 29,912 rooftop solar systems under the scheme, about 6 in 10 of Jammu and Kashmir's 48,833. That is 442 more than on 22 October, in line with the Valley's pace since early September: in each 7-day stretch from 3 September, it added between 392 and 470. Srinagar district had 7,977, up 96 in the week.

The portal does not record whether a home has a battery or a hybrid inverter, or which feeder it is on. So we cannot say how many of these 29,912 homes keep any power in a cut, or how many sit on the feeders cut for 6 to 8 hours. It is also too soon for our counter to show any effect of a plan that began on 17 October.

One caution on applications. Jammu and Kashmir's new applications were high this week: 2,346 in the 7 days to 29 October, against about 1,200 a week through September. That rise began before 17 October, and two-thirds of this week's applications, 1,580, came from the Jammu division, which is outside KPDCL's plan; Rajouri alone had 656, Doda 289 and Kishtwar 159. The Valley had 766, in line with its weeks since September. So we do not read the cuts into these numbers.

Home rooftop solar systems under PM Surya Ghar, Kashmir Valleyrooftops
Home rooftop solar systems under PM Surya Ghar, Kashmir Valley (rooftops) Kashmir Valley, 10 districts: 26,095 on 29 August 2026 to 29,912 on 29 October 2026, in rooftops. 26,00027,00028,00029,00030,00029 Aug29 Oct15 Sep1 Oct15 Oct 26,095 29,912 Home rooftop solar systems under PM Surya Ghar, Kashmir Valley (rooftops) Kashmir Valley, 10 districts: 26,095 on 29 August 2026 to 29,912 on 29 October 2026, in rooftops. 26,00027,00028,00029,00030,00029 Aug29 Oct1 Oct 26,095 29,912

Source: Solentra's daily readings of the PM Surya Ghar national portal (pmsuryaghar.gov.in), 29 August to 29 October 2026, adding up the portal's figures for Anantnag, Bandipora, Baramulla, Budgam, Ganderbal, Kulgam, Kupwara, Pulwama, Shopian and Srinagar. No reading was saved on 1 September. The portal does not record batteries, or which feeder a home is on.

See the numbers
Home rooftop solar systems under PM Surya Ghar, Kashmir Valley
ReadingKashmir Valley, 10 districts
29 Aug 202626,095
30 Aug 202626,161
31 Aug 202626,175
2 Sep 202626,350
3 Sep 202626,411
4 Sep 202626,485
5 Sep 202626,515
6 Sep 202626,568
7 Sep 202626,592
8 Sep 202626,664
9 Sep 202626,727
10 Sep 202626,803
11 Sep 202626,868
12 Sep 202626,935
13 Sep 202627,005
14 Sep 202627,017
15 Sep 202627,104
16 Sep 202627,179
17 Sep 202627,267
18 Sep 202627,339
19 Sep 202627,407
20 Sep 202627,476
21 Sep 202627,486
22 Sep 202627,565
23 Sep 202627,646
24 Sep 202627,686
25 Sep 202627,765
26 Sep 202627,820
27 Sep 202627,893
28 Sep 202627,901
29 Sep 202627,973
30 Sep 202628,042
1 Oct 202628,115
2 Oct 202628,186
3 Oct 202628,243
4 Oct 202628,307
5 Oct 202628,326
6 Oct 202628,424
7 Oct 202628,516
8 Oct 202628,578
9 Oct 202628,652
10 Oct 202628,698
11 Oct 202628,763
12 Oct 202628,777
13 Oct 202628,872
14 Oct 202628,937
15 Oct 202629,048
16 Oct 202629,130
17 Oct 202629,189
18 Oct 202629,243
19 Oct 202629,259
20 Oct 202629,345
21 Oct 202629,406
22 Oct 202629,470
23 Oct 202629,544
24 Oct 202629,610
25 Oct 202629,657
26 Oct 202629,661
27 Oct 202629,737
28 Oct 202629,829
29 Oct 202629,912

What it could mean for IndiaBackup, battery sizing and cut hours that could change

In the Valley, more buyers could start asking for backup this winter. Greater Kashmir reported on 22 October that consumers in Jammu and Kashmir are “leaning towards hybrid systems with storage”, and weeks of scheduled cuts could add to that. If they do, our counter may not show it, because it records rooftops, not batteries.

That could change what a quote needs to cover. A battery for a Valley home is likely to be sized for essentials through the feeder's cut hours: lights, phone charging, the Wi-Fi router and the TV, and fans in summer. Sized that way, it is not built to run a heater through a 6 to 8 hour cut. On the longest-cut feeders, the hours of the cut, more than the size of the roof, could decide what the job needs.

The hours could also change. The plan is itself a revision, and because each feeder's cut follows how much power it loses, a feeder's hours could move if its losses do. A battery sized for a 3 hour cut could fall short if that feeder moves to 6 hours.

For India, the national portal counts rooftops and their capacity, not hours of backup. Where cuts are long and regular, the number that matters to a household could be how many hours its lights stay on, and that may be a question for the battery more than the panels.

What it means for youAsk the feeder and its cut hours before you quote solar

If you install or sell solar in the Kashmir Valley: on every lead, ask which feeder the house is on and how many hours a day it is cut. The customer may already know; if not, KPDCL's feeder-wise schedule has the hours. At half an hour, plain on-grid is usually enough; at 3 hours it can be, with a battery shown as an option. At 6 or 8 hours, quote a battery for essentials beside the plain on-grid price, and write on the quote what it will run and for how many hours. Say plainly that it is not sized to run a heater through the cut.

If you are a dealer supplying Valley installers: ask them how many of their leads are on 6 and 8 hour feeders, and keep hybrid inverters and home battery units in stock to match this winter.

If you are a homeowner in the Valley: find your feeder's hours on KPDCL's feeder-wise schedule before you choose a system. A plain on-grid rooftop lowers your bill but gives nothing in a cut. Backup needs a hybrid inverter or an All-in-One unit with the battery; a plain on-grid inverter has no battery connection. A home battery is for lights, phone charging, the Wi-Fi router and the TV through a long cut, and fans in summer. It is not sized to run a heater through a long cut: a 2 kW heater running for 6 hours uses 12 units (kWh), more than a 10 kWh battery holds even when full. Kashmir Vision's 22 October example of the same heater, run 6 hours a day, comes to about 360 units a month. Our battery calculator asks for the load you want running and your hours without power, and covers Jammu and Kashmir. If you already run an inverter and battery for cuts, tell your installer, so the two are planned together.

If you are applying for the subsidy: MNRE clarified in September 2024, Mercom India reported, that home rooftop systems with battery storage are also eligible for the central subsidy, and that hybrid inverters can be fitted as the electricity regulator's rules allow. That is eligibility, not extra money: we found nothing that pays more subsidy for the battery, so count it as your own cost. Greater Kashmir's 22 October report said hybrid systems would need an extra top-up subsidy from the UT; it described that as a need, not a scheme in place. The scheme's other rules still apply, such as DCR panels, and our 17 October story covers the inverter rules.

If you run a shop, hotel or factory in the Valley: industrial feeders get no scheduled cut under this plan, but a business on any other feeder shares that feeder's hours. Our battery storage page, Powered by UnityESS, covers business systems, and the BESS calculator works out a payback from your cut hours, DG set and tariff.

Solentra distributes SolarYaan inverters and All-in-One units, which hold the inverter and a home battery in one cabinet, and sells battery storage for businesses, Powered by UnityESS.

Sources

  1. Kashmir Life (KL News Network), KPDCL Revises Power Curtailment Timings Across Kashmir, .
  2. The Kashmir Images (KI News), Kashmir power cuts range from 30 minutes to 8 hours under revised schedule, .
  3. Kashmir Vision (KV News), Kashmir's Winter Chill Meets a 300 MW Power Hole, .
  4. Greater Kashmir (Mukeet Akmali), J&K's Rooftop Solar Mission running out of time, .
  5. Kashmir Vision (KV News), Kashmir's Power Bills Rise as Consumers Grapple with Curtailments, .
  6. Kashmir Life (KL News Network), Jammu Kashmir, Ladakh Face Power Deficit of Over 600 MW, .
  7. Northlines, Power deficit of over 600 MW looms for J&K, Ladakh, .
  8. Mercom India (Tina Freese), Residential Rooftop Solar Projects with Battery Storage Eligible for CFA, .
  9. MNRE, National Portal for Rooftop Solar, PM Surya Ghar national portal, read daily by Solentra since 29 Aug 2026, .

The Solar Brief puts public reports in our own words and reads them against Solentra's own daily record of the PM Surya Ghar national portal. Where we say what something could mean, that is our reading, not a forecast. Nothing here is financial, loan or legal advice.

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