Power outages back in Gurgaon

After a brief lull of about 10 days, power outages in Gurgaon city are back, making power plants and micro generators work overtime, reports Sanjeev K Ahuja.

After a brief lull of about 10 days, power outages in Gurgaon city are back, making power plants and micro generators work overtime.

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It has not only added to the cost of each power unit so produced, forcing the consumers to pay through their noses, but air and noise pollution have also gone up.

The worst-affected are condominiums backed up by diesel-run captive power plants, that produce power at the rate of Rs 8-10 per unit, as against the government supply rate of Rs 5.

However, the state-owned Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) managing director Anurag Agarwal claimed the long outages were a result of temporary breakdowns in power production units of Yamuna Nagar and Panipat on Thursday evening.

“It is a temporary phase and the situation would return to normal in 24 hours,” he added.

B.K. Dhawan, a resident of Silver Oaks apartments in DLF City said power supply in Gurgaon had been hit severely on Thursday evening.

“The power supply had been satisfactory for the last 10 days, but suddenly, the situation turned grim recently, with our diesel-run generators working over time. A power unit so produced costs Rs. 8-10 each. Uncertain power cuts have not only added to the cost of units but noise and air pollution also goes up,” Dhawan added.

DHBVN chief Agarwal said breakdown in power production units had been repaired by 1 pm on Friday and that the situation would return to satisfactory in 24 hours.

Vinita Singh, executive engineer, DLF City area said there was a temporary repair to be carried out in DLF City and supply in this area was disrupted because of this.

“Another underground power supply cable in Sushant Lok had snapped at about 4 pm on Friday and this too was being repaired. The Sushant Lok was affected because of this repair on Friday evening,” she added.