Rain floods power sub-stations, long outages in Noida

Several parts of the city continue to face power cuts because of disrupted transformers, sub-stations and electric wires since 6:30 am on Wednesday due to heavy downpour. Residents in many sectors including 5, 6, 8, 19, 20, 26, 28, 30, 31 and 37 reported long power cuts.

Several parts of the city continue to face power cuts because of disrupted transformers, sub-stations and electric wires since 6:30 am on Wednesday due to heavy downpour. Residents in many sectors including 5, 6, 8, 19, 20, 26, 28, 30, 31 and 37 reported long power cuts.

On Thursday evening, Residents said that they had faced power outages of more than 15 hours in the last 36 hours. (Burhaan Kinu/HT Photo)

“We were without electric supply almost the entire day on Wednesday. On Thursday, the current went off from 8am to 12pm and then again for a few hours. We have had nearly 15-hour long power cuts in the last 36 hours,” said Pramod Verma, a resident of Sector 30.

Ashok Hak, a resident of Sector 28, said, “The electricity officials told us that there have been massive breakdowns because of the rains and expressed their helplessness. We had over 12 hours of power cut in the last two days.”

For many industrial units in Sector 5 and 6, the power cuts stretched for over 22 hours because of breakdown and forced shutdowns.

“The Sector 6 substation got submerged in rainwater and the danger of electrocution forced officials to shut down power. We were later informed that several transformers had broken down because of the rains,” said Harish Joneja, chairman of Noida Entrepreneurs Association’s electricity committee.

“Factory owners in the area began complaining on Thursday when they did not have power for a second day. Providing power backup is 10 to 12 times more expensive than the regular electricity supply and this is a major worry,” Joneja added.

The Sector 6 substation caters to more than 1,500 factories.

“We have appealed to the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) to fix the problem. It has assured to help us,” said SK Jain, a resident of Sector 37.

Mukul Singhal, UPPCL Noida’s superintending engineer, said, “Whenever it rains or there is a storm, we often shut down power for safety reasons. Recent rains have caused massive water-logging and that became a big challenge for us. We have restored power in many parts of the city and have alerted our men to fix problems of power cuts as soon as possible.”