As the city saw yet another wet day on Monday with 10.8 mm rainfall, the power consumption pattern saw a marked decline.
With a total 51 mm rainfall since Saturday morning (until Monday afternoon), the peak load came down by over 850 MW by Sunday. From seeing a “historic” maximum peak load of 4,639 MW on March 26, Bescom saw the figure drop to 3,784 MW on April 12. But the reduction did not necessarily translate into a better power situation. With trees falling on electricity lines, high tension jump cuts and feeder faults due to rains, the Bescom helpline has been receiving several complaints of power disruptions. But the power utility does not have a concrete action plan yet and continues to pin hopes on the Distribution Automation Scheme (DAS), which comes into effect in 2016. Bescom Managing Director Pankaj Kumar Pandey said underground cabling and aerial bunching of cables were being undertaken as part of the groundwork for the DAS
