Haryana’s average power load drops by 3,000MW amid strike

Haryana’s electricity load dropped by over 3,400 megawatts (MW) after four power employees’ unions began a three-day strike on Wednesday night against the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission’s decision to grant a 25-year parallel distribution licence to Eleven Power Private Limited in Gurugram and Nuh

Haryana’s electricity load dropped by over 3,400 megawatts (MW) after four power employees’ unions began a three-day strike on Wednesday night against the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission’s decision to grant a 25-year parallel distribution licence to Eleven Power Private Limited in Gurugram and Nuh. The strike was called off on Friday evening.

Haryana’s average power load drops by 3,000MW amid strike

Energy department officials said the state’s electricity load typically ranges between 8,000MW and 8,200MW at this time of year. It stood at 8,255MW on Wednesday evening, hours before the strike began.

“The load dropped to 5,300MW on Thursday and further to 4,772MW on Friday as industries halted production. Several domestic and industrial feeders were switched off by striking employees,” a senior energy department official said, citing State Load Dispatch Centre (SLDC) data.

Gurugram alone accounts for an average load of 1,500MW to 1,600MW, the highest among Haryana’s districts, the official said.

The decline was particularly steep in Jind, where load fell from 425MW on Wednesday to 9MW on Thursday, Narnaul (290MW to 11MW), Nuh (189MW to 17MW) and Fatehabad (358MW to 78MW). Load also declined in Kurukshetra (73MW to 57MW), Ambala (104MW to 71MW) and Sirsa (254MW to 91MW).

Sumit Rao, president of the Gurgaon Industrial Association, said around 15,000 micro, small, medium and large industrial units in Gurugram suffered estimated losses of ₹300 crore over two days.

“It will take time to recover from these losses, which occurred during the festive season when manufacturing activity is at its peak,” he said.

Pawan Kumar Jindal, president of the Daulatabad Road Industrial Association, led a delegation of industrialists to the DHBVN Circle-1 office seeking restoration of power to resume production. However, their requests went unanswered amid the strike.

Inder Mohan Singh, a tractor parts manufacturer, said he had asked raw material suppliers to halt deliveries despite having paid advances, as his factory remained shut.

“Our delivery deadline is approaching, and I have been requesting buyers to wait. We visited five offices seeking restoration of power, but nobody could help,” he said.

Auto parts manufacturer Sheetal Mehra said industries were caught between power outages and restrictions on diesel generators under pollution-control norms.

“Industrial feeders have been shut, and we cannot run diesel generators. Workers’ wages still have to be paid even when production stops,” Mehra said.