NCR residents worried about power supply as Epca bans diesel gensets from Oct 15

The Supreme Court appointed environment pollution (prevention and control) authority’s (Epca’s) move to ban diesel generator sets in the national capital region (NCR) from October 15 has thrown up concerns from Noida and Ghaziabad residents who have had to suffer frequent outages. With many working from home due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, they often had to depend on diesel generator to ensure uninterrupted supply.

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“The UP government claims that Noida is a ‘no power cut’ zone. But in reality, every sector witnesses at least an hour’s power cut daily. Without uninterrupted power supply, lifts, wi-fi and other utility services will stop functioning and affect normal life and work,” said Sandeep Chauhan, a resident of sector 74 housing society and who has been working from home since the Covid-19 outbreak.

Diesel is a polluting fuel and its ban was recommended, among other measures, to control emissions as winter sets on north Indiam bringing with it weak winds that would be unable to disperse pollutants. The Epca has also recommended dust management at construction sites, compliance of norms on large infra projects, pollution control measures at polluting industrial units, enforcement of norms on hot spots, improvement of waste management, regular cleaning of roads and closure of coal fired power plants.

There are 350,000 customers in Noida who get their supply from Pashchimanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited (PVVNL).

Residents are of the view that the government must take all required steps to contain air pollution but also take adequate steps to supply uninterrupted power during the ban on diesel.

“The government never works to strengthen its power supply network and therefore we have to suffer. Why should we depend on gen sets? Only because the power cuts troubled all the time without any prior notice. It is high time that government addressed the issue,” said PS Jain president of confederation of Delhi-NCR RWAs (CONRWA), an umbrella body of RWAs.

The PVVNL, meanwhile, said that it was taking adequate steps to ensure uninterrupted supply.

“We are on standby to handle any situation that comes about. There is a power cut only when we have to address sudden faults in the supply line. However, we will try our best to supply uninterrupted supply from hereon,” said VN Singh, chief engineer, PVVNL, Noida.

In Ghaziabad, residents’ associations said that about 80-90% highrises have diesel generators that supply to apartments, elevators, lighting in common areas, basements, among others.

“It will not be feasible for a high-rise to shut down the diesel generators. Connections to flats and common services are combined and the generators start automatically as soon as the power goes off. So, shutting down these generators will be a difficult proposition. Although the electricity situation nowadays has improved, there are still power cuts,” said Alok Kumar, founder-member of federation of association of apartment owners.

RK Rana, chief engineer (distribution) from PVVNL did not respond to calls.

“We will ensure that the compliance of directions for diesel generator ban is complied with. To ensure that electricity supply is uninterrupted, we will soon hold meeting with electricity department officials and ask them to take measures so that supplies remain uninterrupted. We will also figure out if there are provisions to allow the use of generators in emergency situations,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate.