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Delhi to sweat more this summer

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

Power supply expected to fall short by around 700 MW during coming months

NEW DELHI: With the total power supply this coming summer expected to fall short by around 700 MW, the Capital's power distribution companies have warned that it may end up as a "powerless" summer for many in Delhi and especially those living in the power theft-prone areas where the load-shedding would be maximum.

According to sources, since Delhi produces only 17 per cent of its power needs and this year the Northern Grid is also not adequately prepared to fulfil the total power requirement of around 3,900 MW in summer, there is going to be a lot of load-shedding to bridge the demand-supply gap. "The power distribution companies will be forced to resort to large-scale power cuts -- which would ordinarily be in the range of four to six hours per day," said an official. Though the power distribution companies are taking steps such as upgradation of their distribution system, officials insist it would not be enough as the shortage in availability of power would be really high. Incidentally, while transformer failures, high-tension breakdowns and number of complaints have gone down over the past year, the increase in load-shedding on account of non-availability of power has been a whopping 120 per cent. This means that as against 100 minutes of power cuts per day last year, the duration has gone up to 220 minutes.

Eager to improve upon the delivery of power despite the restraining factors, the power distribution companies have also initiated a number of steps. BSES sources said they have increased the number of their hydraulic tower wagons to 33, their breakdown restoration vans to 110, of the emergency power restoration vans to 43 and of the fault locating vans to 40. Besides, they have also installed four diesel generating sets, set up round the clock control rooms and provided mobile phones to their linemen for instant communication.

But as is evident from the steps, these would only help in better performance of the corrective aspect of power distribution. With the supply situation looking very bleak all the power distribution companies are busy identifying theft-prone areas where the load-shedding would be the maximum. "It is East Delhi which scores over almost all other parts in power theft and so colonies here will have to bear the brunt of the power cuts which would be needed to prevent the system from collapsing," warned an official.

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