Ludhiana: 11-hour outage sparks protest at PSPCL office

The confrontation occurred when a group of residents stopped a grid maintenance vehicle at the railway line near the focal point office of the PSPCL while the team was on its way to restore electricity

Tension ran high in the PSPCL focal point office on Tuesday night after several residents agitated over an 11-hour power outage in the area and engaged in a heated spat with workers.

PSPCL staff said they were working under difficult conditions to repair the grid fault and the confrontation further delayed restoration work. (HT Photo)

The confrontation occurred when a group of residents stopped a grid maintenance vehicle at the railway line near the focal point office of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) while the team was on its way to restore electricity.

According to officials, the prolonged outage was triggered by a technical fault in the 220 KV transmission lines at Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) grid at Jamalpur. Due to this, the power supply was disrupted from around 1 pm in the afternoon and was fully restored by midnight, leaving several households and commercial units in the focal point and Giaspura area without electricity for nearly half a day.

Sahil, junior engineer, transmission lines at the GT road substation, said, “The prolonged outage was prompted by a major technical fault in the 220 KV lines. Due to this, the power supply to 66 KV transmission lines at the Sherpur and Giaspura grids was also impacted. Although we restored power to certain areas within a few hours by shifting the load, some localities in the focal point and Giaspura remained without electricity due to faults in the BBMB grid.”

According to the junior engineer, as soon as the supply from this grid was restored, a team was approaching the affected substation to resume supply when around 50 to 60 residents stopped the vehicle and confronted them near the PSPCL focal point office. “It was only after we called the police that the crowd dispersed. Even before this incident, these residents had thronged the nearby substation to express their frustration.”

Meanwhile, residents highlighted their frustration by stating, “We understand technical faults can happen, but blackout for such long hours is unacceptable. That is why we stopped the vehicle and demanded answers from officials.”

PSPCL staff said they were working under difficult conditions to repair the grid fault and the confrontation further delayed restoration work. “Our team was trying to fix the fault at the transmission lines as quickly as possible. Such incidents make it harder for us to complete the job on time,” they added.

“This is not the first time we have faced such a long outage. We hope the authorities take measures to improve maintenance and communication so that consumers are not forced into such situations,” said Ravi Sharma, another resident.