Gurugram discom says no power cuts from June 15 as residents suffer power outages

With residents in several areas of Gurugram suffering power outages lasting up to 12 hours since the end of April, the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN)

With residents in several areas of Gurugram suffering power outages lasting up to 12 hours since the end of April, the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) officials on Thursday assured that supply would become regular and the city would not experience any outages from June 15.

Gurugram outages are due to supply shortage, poor infrastructure and undeclared additional load on line , say officials. (HT photo)

While people living in condominiums are making do with supply from power backups, those living in sectors are facing the real brunt of the outages. Stating the reasons for outages, officials said supply shortage, poor infrastructure and undeclared additional load on line are to be blamed for the current situation.

“The power cut issues will be resolved by June 15 as we are in the process of changing cables and transformers, and are addressing many other technical issues. Presently, there is a one-hour rotational power cut across the city, but that is mostly due to faults in lines at the general area level. The teams are working hard and deadlines have been set to ensure smooth supply of power,” KC Aggarwal, superintending engineer of DHBVN said.

Officials added that they are also in the process of updating the city’s infrastructure, which, in some areas, is over 20 years old.

“There are 236 11KV feeders across the city. Of these, we have finished reducing the load on 188 feeders, which meant we changed all mechanical metres and relocated them outside the houses on the electricity pole or wall due to which pilferage has come down. This has reduced the load on the distribution transformer and improved the supply,” Aggarwal said, accepting that they have been late in completing the infrastructure overhaul.

Aside from technical issues, the discom officials said the strong squalls that have hit the national capital region (NCR) since the beginning of May have had a crippling effect on the area’s power infrastructure. The squalls uprooted trees which fell on electricity poles, snapping power cables.

They said that there has also been an increase in demand, but that they are equipped to meet it .

“Last summer, in May, electricity consumption in the city shot up to 285 lakh units per day. Last week, it touched 289 lakh units and we are expecting that it will further go up to 310-325 lakh units per day. We are ready to meet this demand,” Aggarwal said.

However, residents remained apprehensive. They said that extreme fluctuation in voltage often leads to outages, and has become a major cause for concern.

“The Haryana chief minister had announced that the city will have 24-hour power supply. But, here, getting uninterrupted power supply for four hours is also a challenge,” said Vinod Tayal, vice-president of the DLF Phase 2 residents’ welfare association (RWA).

Residents added that the problem of power outages is not new, and the irregularity of supply has plagued them for years despite repeated assurances of infrastructure update.

“The officials always say that maintenance work is going on, but nothing changes even after this work is done,” said Bhim Singh Yadav, president of Sector 22B RWA.