Despite surplus power, west, south Delhi face cuts

Even as the electricity supply system remained awash with surplus power, parts of west and south Delhi faced freak power cuts on Thursday morning and afternoon.

Even as the electricity supply system remained awash with surplus power, parts of west and south Delhi faced freak power cuts on Thursday morning and afternoon.

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Short, intermittent power cuts, lasting for half an hour, were reportedly due to some local faults.

However, there were no instances of load shedding, officials of the power distribution company BSES said.

The demand for power was 3,034 megawatts (MW) on Thursday — measly by Delhi's standards.

The load has been hovering around 3200 MW during the past few days.

But what made matters uncomfortable was the mugginess of the mornings.

With no sign of the chilly northwesterly winds, the mornings are devoid of the usual nip in the air, which is de rigueur in November.

“Around 9.15 am, the power supply went off but returned in half an hour. It again went off for about 20 minutes sometime later,” said Rajan Gupta, a Janakpuri resident.

Areas like Vikaspuri, Kakrola, Dwarka Sectors 7, 10 and 3, Sagarpur, Nangloi and adjoining places faced power cuts during the day.

In south Delhi, Arjun Nagar, Krishna Nagar, parts of Safdarjung Enclave and Govindpuri faced power cuts.

“Due to the power cut in the morning, water-heating was a problem,” said Arun Kumar, an Arjun Nagar resident.

Power transmission and distribution utilities carry out major maintenance work during the winter months in Delhi.

Often, transmission lines to trip due to the excessive moisture in the air.

“We’ve been taking measures to reduce instances of tripping due to fog this year,” said a power department official.

“We have also tried live cleaning of high tension wires, so that there is no disruption in supply,” the official added.