Wind damages overhead cables, triggers outages across Gurugram

Power outages hit several areas of the city due to strong winds damaging transmission lines and ongoing construction work on the smart city project, with some areas facing up to 11 hours of outages. Trees falling on transmission lines and poles were among the reasons cited for the extensive damage. Some residents reported up to nine hours without power, while discom officials said that as of now, there is no shortage of power supply in the city and that the demand is being fully met.

Several areas of the city faced power outages over the past two to three days as strong winds damaged overhead power transmission lines, officials of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (DHBVN) said on Wednesday.

Gurugram, India-June 09:A DHBVN worker repairing the damaged wire due to overload on a hot summer day at Shivaji Nagar Near Government School, in Gurugram, India, on Thursday, 09 June 2022. (Photo by Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)

Discom officials said ongoing construction work on smart city project and line snags also triggered outages in some areas.

They said at least 10-12 feeders in Sohna and Taru subdivision of DHBVN Circle-2, including those supplying power to Sohna City, Kalwari, Salaka, Taru Dhan and other areas, faced outages for as long as 11 hours on Tuesday.

Officials said the outages were caused by extensive damage on transmission lines and conductors, collapse of electricity poles and trees in the windy weather over the past two days.

A Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) feeder in Circle-2 also faced a 13-hour outage due to a snag in the transmission line on Tuesday, officials added.

In Farrukhnagar subdivision of Circle-1, an independent feeder for Sare Homes locality faced more than nine hours of outage on Tuesday, due to a fault in the transmission line, discom officials said. A few other areas saw power cuts on Tuesday due to the dismantling of overhead power lines. Residents of Lakshman Vihar Phase-1 and 2 in Sector 3, and Sector 9’s New Colony faced power outages for up to nine hours as a result.

Deepak Raut, (32), a resident of Lakshman Vihar Phase-1, said there was no power in their area from 11am to 7pm on Tuesday. “Those who remained at home suffered due to the heat. Even inverter batteries got drained out,” he said.

Mithilesh Dubey, (52), who lives on Bhondsi jail road in Sector 67A, said she faced at least three outages during the day and two more outages at night on Tuesday.

Manasvi Yadav, (18), a resident of Sector 28, said she was facing multiple outages both during the day and the night for the past two to three days.

“It becomes unbearable at night; we can’t even sleep due to the heat,” Yadav said.

PK Chauhan, superintending engineer of Circle-2, which was most affected by the weather, said transmission lines were damaged in many areas, especially in the greenbelts.

“Sohna and Tauru were worst affected by the wind that resulted in trees or branches falling on transmission lines, besides uprooting poles, which disrupted supply. However, no outage was reported on Wednesday,” Chauhan added.

Chauhan said that as of now, there is no shortage of power supply in the city.

“The demand is being met fully. In fact, due to rain and overcast skies in April and early May, the peak power demand is still low,” he said.

Sahil Garg, subdivisional officer of New Colony, said L&T, the firm involved in underground cabling for the smart city project, had taken permits to carry out dismantling work of overhead wires due to which power supply was cut in Lakshman Vihar and Sector 9. “However, malfunctioning took place in a transformer in Lakshman Vihar and later at a substation of Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited (HVPNL) due to which long outages were reported,” Garg said.