Relief from power cuts: Capacity of Sahibabad substation to be increased

The power department has decided to increase the capacity of the 220KV substation in Sahibabad to check long power cuts.

The power department has decided to increase the capacity of the 220KV substation in Sahibabad to check long power cuts. Officials decided on the move as the under construction 400KV substation in Indirapuram is yet to get operational.

Increasing the capacity will improve power supply in areas such as Vasundhara, Vaishali, Mohan Nagar and Sahibabad Industrial Area, among others. (Sakib Ali /HT Photo)

UP chief minister in March had written to the Union home minister Rajnath Singh to allow construction of a tower at the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) campus in Indirapuram for the 400 KV substation.

“We are still waiting for nod from the Centre, which has caused a delay in the completion of the substation,” MC Sharma, superintending engineer of the power department, said.

Senior officials said that the capacity of the substation in Sahibabad’s Maharajpur area will be increased to 400MVA from 360 MVA. A transformer of 200MVA capacity will replace the existing 160MVA one.

Increasing the capacity of this substation will provide relief to residents of Vasundhara, Vaishali, Mohan Nagar, Sahibabad industrial area, Shalimar Garden, Rajendra Nagar and Lajpat Nagar, as it supplies power to the 132KV substations in Vaishali and Mohan Nagar.

“Work on setting up the new transformer will commence by Sunday and is expected to be completed in the next 20 days. During summers, faults in transformers increase due to overloading and cause power outages for four to five hours. However, we hope that this problem can be solved by increasing the capacity of this substation,” Arvind Rajvedi, chief engineer of the power department, Ghaziabad, said.

He said that the power demand of consumers in Mohan Nagar and Vasundhara zones is not being met due to the rise in population.

“Population in trans-Hindon areas has almost doubled in the last five years. We are able to provide only 500MVA supply against the demand of 600MVA. An additional 40MVA power can be supplied after the capacity of the

Maharajpur substation is increased. This will relieve power cuts in the area,” Rajvedi said.

Of the 500 MVA power supply, 360 MVA is supplied from the Maharajpur substation and the remaining 140 MVA from various sources, including Muradnagar’s 400 KV substation for Ghaziabad and the 132 KV substations in Kaushambi and Vaishali, which get supply from Noida.

This substation will also be linked directly to the 33KV substation in Sector 19 of Vasundhara that is currently supplied power from the 33KV substation in Sector 16 of Vasundhara.

“We are laying underground cables to connect the Maharajpur substation in Sahibabad with the 33KV substation in Sector 19 of Vasundhara. This will relieve the load on the Sector 16 substation. The work will be completed by the second week of May,” OP Bedi, power department’s junior engineer, said.