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Despite searing heat, no end to power pangs in Mohali
Residents bearing the brunt of PSPCL’s failure to upgrade transmission system that is unable to handle the summer demand
Unscheduled power cuts running into four hours continue in Mohali city, Zirakpur, Kharar and Dera Bassi, compounding the woes of residents, who are already reeling under soaring temperatures.
Overloaded transformers and lines due to inadequate transmission network are leading to outages through the day and night, leaving residents sweating.
There are nearly 2,00,000 consumers in different categories in Mohali. As many as 1,70,000 are domestic connections, which have become even more crucial amid the pandemic, with residents required to work from home and attend online classes.
According to the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) records, nearly 50% of the 19 grid sub-stations in the district do not have sufficient infrastructure to cater to the rising power demand in urban areas, leading to overloading and crippling of supply.
Among them 66 kV grids in Sunny Enclave and Gillco Valley in Kharar; Tuer village near Mullanpur; Seonk; Phase 9, Industrial Area; Bhabat at Zirakpur; and Mubarikpur remain fully loaded and any further increase in demand leads to power cuts.
In several locations, power cables are also lying damaged.
Kamal Tiwana, a resident of Kharar said, for the past one week, they had been facing unscheduled power cuts for two to three hours daily.
A resident of Zirakpur, Jandial Naresh said a power outage started at 11pm on Tuesday and was not over until 11am the next day.
Random outages through the night are prevalent across GMADA sectors in Mohali city as well.
Worse, residents’ calls to the power department for resolution also evoke no response. In July 2019, with a move to resolve complaints swiftly, PSPCL has outsourced the relevant services to UK-based Teleperformance company. Yet, while the 1912 helpline is often unavailable, another helpline number 9646-115-973 always remains busy when the power is out, complain residents.
PS Virdi, member, Punjab State Advisory Committee, regulatory electricity commission, said despite repeated reminders, the corporation had failed to upgrade the basic infrastructure. “The cables should have been replaced and capacity of the transformers increased, but no steps were taken over the past one year,” he said.
PSPCL superintending engineer Mohit Sood said transformers were getting overloaded with demand peaking over the past week. “Work is in progress to sort this out at various sub-stations,” he said.
