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Hot weather spell exposes chinks in power distribution network
The prevailing hot and humid long summer spell has exposed chinks in the state’s electricity distribution network yet again, causing power crisis in most cities including the state capital
The prevailing hot and humid long summer spell has exposed chinks in the state’s electricity distribution network yet again, causing power crisis in most cities including the state capital.
As the load on the network increases especially during night with much use of air-conditioners and hooking of ‘katiyas’, the overloaded and overheated transformers explode and aerial bunch conductors of overhead lines frequently melt rendering people in the areas concerned ‘powerless’ for hours almost every day.
“Our locality has been reeling under severe power crisis with frequent tripping and load shedding for last two weeks. We have to stay awake in the nigh till the supply is restored,” complained Ravi Gupta, a resident of sector 14, Indira Nagar.
Vijay Lal, a private firm employee and resident of exhibition ground area, Aligarh, said frequent power cuts were intolerable these days because of intense heat even as the sub-station staff remained out of reach for most of the time when they tried to complain. “Frequent outages badly disrupt the internet connectivity as well as affect the office work I do from home these days,” he complained.
This situation is despite the fact that there is demand-supply gap in the state and UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) claims that it is meeting all the power demand and providing electricity as per the roster without resorting to any emergency extra load shedding.
“The demand has certainly increased very much due to heat and humidity but we are able to meet the demand as there is no shortage of electricity,” UPPCL director (distribution) AK Srivastav said.
“The power crisis that people sometimes complain of is due to local breakdowns most of which are unavoidable but all attempts are made to rectify them and restore the supply in the minimum possible time,” he added.
The power demand made a new record on Thursday when it was recorded to be 24,926 MW during the peak hours. Informing this through a tweet the same day, energy minister Shrikant Sharma said “The highest-ever power to the tune 24,926 MW was supplied in the state on June 30. Its credit goes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s polices and chief minister Yogi Adityanath government’s successful execution and UPPCL personnel’s hard work,” he said.
While enough electricity is available in the transmission and distribution sub-stations, the same often fails to reach consumers due to local breakdowns being caused by several reasons with overloading being the main one.
Blaming overloading and purchase and use of substandard transformers, cables etc, UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad chairman Avadhesh Kumar Verma said it was an irony that people were reeling under power crisis even in the state capital despite the UPPCL injecting record electricity into the sub-stations.
“The issue is that electricity often does not reach end consumer because of distribution bottlenecks in between” he said. He also said 132 sub-stations in the state were overloaded by around 2 crore kw due to poor planning and rampant theft. Verma alleged that most of transformers exploded and cables melted not only because of overloading and overheating but also because of their poor quality.
During his meetings with discoms, the energy minister invariably touches the issue of power supply these days. He has repeatedly expressed concern over the complaints he receives about the power supply and has asked engineers to ensure quick disposal of grievances apart from taking steps to eliminate overloading of transformers.
