Large parts of the Capital went dark with power outages on Friday as the city’s demand for electricity set a new record.
A peak load of 6,188 MW was witnessed at 3.18 p.m., as per the State Load Despatch Centre. Thursday had seen power demand breach the 6,000 MW mark for the first time, with a peak load of 6,044 MW. The peak demand for power went up eight per cent in 48 hours, from 5,733 MW to 6,188 MW.
According to government officials, the demand for electricity in the Capital this week has been about 23 per cent more than the third week of May last year.
Supply hit
In 2015, the peak for the third week of May was 5,023 MW on May 18. Last year, the peak demand power had reached 5,846 MW on June 19. This year, demand has already surpassed that.
While officials said that discoms had made arrangements to procure adequate electricity, there were outages across the city.
Supply in parts of South Delhi, including South Extension, Defence Colony, Nizamuddin, Vasant Vihar, East of Kailash and Jangpura, were affected.
Power supply was also hit in other parts of South Delhi, including Okhla and nearby areas, due to over-loading.
A resident of Jangpura Extension, Alok Singh, said: “Around midnight, the power went off and for the next four hours we tried to sleep on the terrace, but couldn't because of the mosquitoes. I couldn't sleep all night.”
Demand to cross 6,300 MW
Officials said that due to the intense heat, the power demand has been high round-the-clock this week so the network wasn't getting time to cool down.
In North Delhi, Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd recorded a peak demand of 1,764 MW, without “any network constraint and power outage”, said a statement from the discom.
“The peak demand in Delhi is increasing with each passing day. We are expecting the peak demand of Delhi to cross 6,300 MW and Tata Power-DDL’s to cross 1,850 MW. We have made adequate arrangements of power of up to 2000 MW,” said Praveer Sinha, the CEO and MD of Tata Power Delhi Distribution.
Meanwhile, Power Minister Satyendar Jain on Friday asked all three power discoms in Delhi to deploy additional teams to repair breakdowns and carry out maintenance works.
Mr. Jain said that a large number of complaints of 'no supply' had been lodged on Thursday with the three discoms – 4,775 (BYPL), 5,219 (BRPL) and 1,383 (TPDDL).
Officials say that due to the intense heat, power demand has been high round-the-clock
