Outages back to haunt city residents

Long power cuts are back. On Saturday, citywide power cuts made life hell for Delhiites already battling a rainless monsoon.

Long power cuts are back.

HT Image

On Saturday, citywide power cuts made life hell for Delhiites already battling a rainless monsoon.

The outages ranged from one to five hours as supply by private power distribution companies, especially in South and West Delhi, tripped to meet a power demand of 3,952 MW.

In areas like Dwarka, Safdarjung Enclave, Krishna Nagar, CR park and Lajpat Nagar, power cuts were during afternoons, whereas at Vasant Kunj and Mehrauli areas the evenings were bad.

“The cuts were quite intermittent. We had to complain thrice during the day. But each time the outages were for an hour each,” said Saakshi Mehta, a housewife in Lajpat Nagar II.

At South Delhi areas like CR Park, Alaknanda and Greater Kailash-II, the afternoon and evening were particularly bad.“Power generation in Delhi was bad and there was low power generation in Delhi,” said a distcom official as a reason behind the problem.

Several residents were livid that distcoms did not give any notice of scheduled cuts or maintenance and repair work beforehand.

Delhi's own power generation took a hit, as the power produced was around 350 MW less than usual due to maintenance related reasons. Low frequency relays in the Northern Grid also tripped supply in the afternoon, officials said.