Taking serious note of power cuts in the city,already troubled by the scorching heat,Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Sunday warned two private power distribution companies (discoms) that action would be initiated against them if they failed to improve the supply immediately. Dikshit said residents were experiencing long power cuts,despite surplus availability of power in Delhi. The government made it clear that it would no longer overlook outages. Dikshit summoned chief executive officers of BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd and BSES Yamuna Power Ltd to her residence and asked them to rectify problems in their supply network. She also warned that shifting of responsibilities between Delhi Transco Ltd (DTL) the government entity that maintains all major transmission networks in the city and the discoms would not be tolerated. She said the mess had probably been been created due to lack of coordination between the two bodies. The city has between 500 MV and 800 MW of surplus power. We will not tolerate power cuts. The discoms and DTL have to improve their coordination to avoid power cuts, Dikshit said. During the meeting,DTL was asked to improve maintenance of its network as a number of major transmission lines it looks after had tripped in the past four days,causing long power cuts in many areas of the capital. Residents of West Delhi had to face outages for up to 10 hours on Friday due to tripping of a major line in Pappankala. Dikshit also directed Chief Secretary D M Spolia and the Power Secretary to review the situation every Tuesday and Friday. She asked DTL and the discoms to submit a daily comprehensive report to the government and carry out a joint inspection of the distribution network. She warned them of action if they failed to improve the power supply, an official said. Officials said DTL representatives informed Dikshit that a major transformer would be set up at Hastsal by June 7,and another at Matiala by June 30,to improve power supply in various areas of West Delhi. The BSES discoms supply power in 70 per cent areas of the city. Despite governments claim to ensure round-the-clock supply,areas across the city has faced power cuts for up to six hours in the past few days,even as the maximum temperature crossed 45 degree Celsius. The searing heat,on Sunday,pushed the power demand in the city to over 4,955 MW,the highest this year. Last year,the peak demand had gone beyond 5,600 MW. Power department officials said the maximum demand is likely to go beyond 6,000 MW this summer. Senior government officials present in the meeting blamed the long outages on local faults and other technical problems in the distribution network. The Chief Minister also express unhappiness about the lack of a complaint redressal system for the discoms. She directed them to put in place a quick response mechanism and asked them to give wide publicity to the mechanism and customer care numbers,officials said. Power play 4,955 mw Peak power demand on Sunday 5,600 mw Highest demand in a day last year 6,000 mw Peak demand expected this year DTL setting up two major transformers n At Hastsal to be ready by June 7 n At Matiala by June 30
