Scheduled power cuts back in Noida

The power department has said it is a temporary situation

Scheduled power outages are back in Noida and residents are not happy, especially with the festival season here.

UPPCL notice to residents on Thursday said there will be two-hour outages every day. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

The Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation of Limited (UPPCL) on Saturday said the scheduled outages were necessary as there was a shortage in supply. The state has a requirement of 13,000MW electricity a day and the supply is short by 1,500MW.

A UPPCL official said the government is trying to make up the shortage, which is due to a supply shortfall in coal from Madhya Pradesh.

The UPPCL on Thursday intimated city residents of the situation and scheduled two-hour power cuts at night for an indefinite period. The Federation of Noida Residents’ Welfare Association (Fonrwa) at first objected to the scheduled power cuts, but later agreed to daytime cuts.

AN Dhawan, secretary general, Fonrwa, said, “The temperature is high these days and it is also humid. An outage at night will irk residents. On our request, the UPPCL did not cut power on Thursday and Friday night.”

Adding to crisis, Noida is also supplying nearly 50 MW power to Ghaziabad as supply in the trans-Hindon areas has been suspended for three days starting September 29 to facilitate the work of raising the height of transmission towers.

“A technical problem arose at a substation in Ghaziabad on Friday. That is why we temporarily supplied electricity to Ghaziabad but that hardly had an impact on us,” said Mukul Singhal superintending engineer (SE), UPPCL, Gautam Budh Nagar.

“We have been informed that power generation and supply is both improving and the crisis will be resolved in a couple of days. In the state of UP, only our city (Noida) is getting minimum power cuts. We have assured the residents that there will be no power cuts during the night and we will reduce the duration gradually,” Singhal said.

The UPPCL, however, is under fire for low voltage supply in many parts.

“Low voltage is forcing us to keep our AC off at night. I called up UPPCL officials several times but no one picked up. This is a perennial problem,” said Sudhir Sood resident of Sector 44, adding that power crisis during festival season is unfortunate and the government should not make Noida suffer like that.