3 HVPNL officials suspended after Friday’s blackout in Gurugram

Officials said faulty circuit breakers and delayed response at substations worsened the five-hour power disruption.

Three officials of Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited (HVPNL) were suspended for alleged negligence in duty following Friday night’s massive blackout in Gurugram that disrupted power supply for nearly five hours and halted Rapid Metro services for 43 minutes, officials said on Sunday.

Officials are shifting loads and installing transformers after the Sector 72 blaze disrupted electricity and Rapid Metro operations. (HT)

The order named the suspended officials as assistant electrical engineer (EE) Sandeep Singh and junior engineer (JE) Brijesh (single name), both posted at the 220kV substation in Palli, Faridabad, along with junior engineer (in-charge) Sandeep Nain, posted at the 220kV substation in Sector 72 where a current transformer blast triggered the outage. According to the order issued by the state government, “Consequent upon a major power supply failure occurred on 22.05.2026 at 19:50 Hrs due to damage/failure of 220 kV CT at 220 kV Substation Sector 72, Gurugram, resulting in disruption of power supply to Rapid Metro, Gurugram, the services of following officer/officials are hereby placed under suspension with immediate effect.” The order is available on HVPNL’s website.

Officials said the suspensions were ordered on Saturday night after a preliminary inquiry. A senior HVPNL official said state energy minister Anil Vij chaired a meeting with stakeholders on Saturday evening and sought a report on the incident.

The two officials posted at Palli were suspended for allegedly failing to activate circuit breakers supplying power to the 220 kV Sector 56 substation, which also powers the Rapid Metro.

“During inquiry, it surfaced that the circuit breakers at the Palli substation for turning on power supply for the Sector 56 substation were not functional for the last several weeks. Neither steps were taken to get them replaced, nor were senior officials informed about it,” the official said, adding power supply from Palli would have significantly downscaled the blackout in Gurugram as some of the affected substations connected to the one in Sector 56 could have also been restarted.

“After the preliminary inquiry, it surfaced that the JE at the Sector 72 substation had failed to properly act on Friday night to take necessary countermeasures after the fault took place. He was in the habit of remaining in an intoxicated state, which had resulted in a scenario in which he failed to take necessary preventive actions quickly,” the official said.

According to HVPNL officials, the current transformer that exploded at the Sector 72 substation had been installed in 2011. Over time, the oil inside the transformer lost its heat dissipation capacity, resulting in overheating during high load and elevated ambient temperatures, eventually causing the explosion.

Officials said HVPNL has initiated an audit of ageing electrical equipment across substations to identify machinery whose operational efficiency may have deteriorated over time. They added that such equipment would be replaced to prevent similar incidents in future.

The outage at the Sector 72 220kV substation, described by officials as the “lifeline” of Gurugram’s power infrastructure, disrupted supply to three 220kV substations in sectors 52, 56 and 57, along with five 66kV substations, plunging large parts of the city into darkness.