Erratic power supply disrupted Gurugram’s water supply 119 times in August

Power tripping was recorded 43 times at the Basai plant, followed by 41 and 35 instances at the Chandu Budhera plant and Sector 16 boosting station, respectively, between August 1 and 27.

Water supply to the city was disrupted at least 119 times in August so far due to severe power fluctuation at Basai and Chandu Budhera water treatment plants (WTPs) and a boosting station in Sector 16, records of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) revealed.

Power tripping leads to severe water outage in Gurugram. (Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO)

The authority on Friday asked the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) to fix the issue at the two plants, where the authority treats raw Yamuna water and supplies it to the city.

Officials of the two departments held a meeting in this regard and agreed to resolve the issue.

Power tripping was recorded 43 times at the Basai plant, followed by 41 and 35 instances at the Chandu Budhera plant and Sector 16 boosting station, respectively, between August 1 and 27.

Each instance disrupts water supply, a GMDA official said, adding that tripping is a problem at the plants round the year, but not as bad as this August. “On average, we note 10 to 15 instances of tripping every month but the situation in August was worse. Water is an essential service and there should be zero fault power supply to the WTPs and boosting station,” the GMDA official said.

The official said that there are 50 high-power motors that run the plants and boosting stations round the clock.

“When electricity supply trips — even for a minute or two — it increases the down surge (of water flow in a pipeline) due to which there is always a possibility of a pipe burst or leakage. Further, to restart the system back to full capacity, it takes an hour to two at least,” the official said, adding that DHBVN officials have assured to resolve the issue.

The GMDA supplies 450 to 480 million litres of water daily (MLD) to the city from the two plants. There was no tripping at the Sector 51 boosting station, officials said.

“There are 1600 mm to 900mm water pipelines that carry a high volume of water at any point of time at high pressure. When the system trips, the water returns in pipelines from the high level to a low level, at a high pressure, which often damages joints and bends, causing bursts or leaks,” said Lalit Arora, GMDA chief engineer.

Frequent tripping caused leakages in the 1600mm pipeline at Basai. This was repaired by the authority a week ago. A burst in the pipeline near Signature Tower on June 15 was also because of tripping, the official said.

“The tripping this month took place mainly because of faults at substations and distribution lines, because of disturbances caused by rains. We have rectified the faults. We have also suggested the GMDA set up a substation at Basai and Chandu Budhera plants to minimise the fault in the distribution line,” said Sanjiv Chopra, DHBVN chief engineer.