Even as Delhi sizzled at 41 degrees Celsius on Saturday, power cuts on account of an 800-MW shortfall added to the discomfort of its citizens.
With various power plants on the blink and the Northern Grid grappling with low frequency and heavy withdrawal, power companies in the city were unable to meet the demand.
According to officials, power-generating units like Dadri II, Rihand, Bawana Power plant, Badarpur Thermal Power Plant, Chamera and Tehri reported a reduction in power supply on account of various technical faults.
“The Northern Gird reeled under heavy drawal of power and low frequency. There are only so many options for the discoms to arrange power. But since the shortage was pretty high, almost touching 900 MW at one time, rotational load-shedding had to be carried out,” said a BSES official.
TPDDL officials said the shortfall in their area hovered at 200 MW and that the company had to arrange for power from other stations.
Power cuts in several areas were as long as three hours to four hours, though the discoms said they were restricted from 30 minutes to an hour.
Referring to the shortage, power department officials said one unit of the 490 MW at Dadri was out and that Delhi gets about 80 per cent of here; two units of 500 MW at Rihand were out on account of a boiler tube leakage; one unit of 280 MW at Bawana was out due to a technical fault and one unit of 100 MW and another of 200 MW at BPTS were out on account of water shortage.
“There was no electricity from 1 a.m. till 4 a.m. on Saturday. It was very distressing for us, especially since we have a small child,” said Pandara Road resident Neena Duggal.
Residents in Mayur Vihar Phase I, Geeta Colony, Okhla, West Patel Nagar, Laxmi Nagar, Uttam Nagar, Janakpuri, Ashok Vihar, South Extension and Krishna Nagar and Preet Vihar also complained of long power cuts.
“The problem in BPTS has arisen only because the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department closed down the Agra canal for cleaning. It is unfortunate that the maintenance work which should have been carried out earlier is being done now,” said the official.
On Saturday, the peak demand on the system was 4,490 MW against Delhi's generation of just 947 MW. The frequency was also low, falling to 49.04 Hz on a few occasions.
