Powercuts across city as demand peaks

As the citys peak power demand touched 3,914 MW,the highest of the season so far,and just short of the dreaded 4,000-MW mark,complaints of wide-scale powercuts were heard from all over Delhi.

We have already had three powercuts of an hour each since the morning,and we are in the middle of another powercut,which has been in effect since the last half-an-hour. We called BSES and they said they cannot do anything since rotational powercuts are in effect. We also tried to call the Chief Ministers Office but could not speak with her, Manjeet Singh Chugh,joint secretary of the South Extension Part-I Residents Welfare Association,said.

The worst hit areas in the Capital fall in South and West Delhi,areas supplied by the discom BSES.

Officials in the Power department have started their blame game and fingers are being pointed at everyone from the discoms to other states. There is an inter-regional transfer capacity of the Northern Grid and the cap for that is usually around 1,300 MW at any given time. This capacity denotes the amount of power than can be transferred from one region to another. That capacity was exceeded due to over drawl from the northern states and,hence,load-shedding had to be effected to prevent damage to the grid, a senior official at the Delhi Transco said. Another official said that load-shedding of approximately 100 MW was carried out for a one-hour period.

However,all officials,including those from the discoms,maintained that the problem was not due to shortage of power but due to the technical limitations of the power infrastructure.

Meanwhile,consumers had to bear the brunt of load-shedding. Sameer Bhagat,a member of a residents welfare association in Vasant Vihar,said: I have lost count of the number of times the power has gone. Sometimes its for 10 minutes and sometimes for an hour. Due to the unreliability of the power supply,my computer broke down,as too much fluctuation is harmful for electronic appliances.

Even the citys privileged areas,such as Khan Market,faced power cuts. The smaller of the two Big Chill restaurants,had to shut down for a while as its back-up power ran out.

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As the frequency on the grid dips and the transfer capacity is exceeded,there is very little choice but to resort to load-shedding for a bit. Failure to do so can result in damage to the grid to the extent of having to shut the grid down,which would be disastrous, a senior power department official said while explaining the technical aspect of power transfers from one state to another.

As the peak demand rose in the Capital,at one time Delhi was also over drawing as much as 400 MW from the Northern grid.

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Powercuts across city as demand peaks

As the citys peak power demand touched 3,914 MW,the highest of the season so far,and just short of the dreaded 4,000-MW mark,complaints of wide-scale powercuts were heard from all over Delhi.

As the citys peak power demand touched 3,914 MW,the highest of the season so far,and just short of the dreaded 4,000-MW mark,complaints of wide-scale powercuts were heard from all over Delhi.