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City faces power outages as maintenance works run off schedule
PSPCL officials have attributed the recurring outages to ongoing maintenance and bifurcation work on transmission lines across the city
Despite a steep decline in power demand, Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has struggled to ensure steady supply in Ludhiana. Over the past week, several residential areas--including New Chander Nagar, SBS Nagar, Model Town Extension, New Kartar Nagar, GTB Nagar, and Dugri--have reported a rise in unplanned, prolonged outages, disrupting daily routines.
Mandeep Singh, a resident of GTB Nagar, said, “This week we have experienced power cuts almost every day, each lasting two to three hours. Whenever I reported the issue, officials said new cables were being installed or transformers were under repair. I work from home, so these repeated interruptions make it difficult to manage when the power goes off without warning.”
Echoing similar concerns, Gagandeep Arora of SBS Nagar said, “The outages have become more frequent lately. There is no prior information from the department, and when we try contacting officials, they rarely respond, leaving us unsure when the supply will return.”
PSPCL officials have attributed the recurring outages to ongoing maintenance and bifurcation work on transmission lines across the city after the intense summer heat placed additional strain on the network.
A senior PSPCL official posted from the Sunder Nagar division explained that over the past few months, high temperatures had increased the load on transformers and feeder lines, resulting in wear and tear. To prevent major failures in the coming months when the demands will shoot up again, the department has initiated extensive maintenance which involves inspecting and replacing old cables; repairing transformers and upgrading components to handle higher loads efficiently.
He added that bifurcation work is also underway to divide overloaded feeders into separate lines, enabling a more even distribution of supply. While this strengthens the grid and reduces the risk of large-scale outages in the long run, it requires temporary shutdowns to safely install new cables and replace transformers.
The official further noted, “Authorities usually approve only one-day shutdowns for each feeder to minimise disruption. However, due to staff shortages and the complexity of the tasks, these shutdowns have extended beyond the scheduled time. Maintenance and bifurcation work require careful coordination, including balancing transformer loads and testing new connections. With limited technical staff, any delay in one segment causes extended outages, as supply to connected areas must remain off until the work is completed safely.”
Junior engineer Darshan Singh added that several areas under the Model Town division experienced outages on Saturday for more than two hours because of a sudden technical fault in an 11 KV feeder line. A transformer was also damaged, worsening the disruption. “These outages are temporary and will be resolved once the ongoing maintenance work is completed,” he said.
