NEW DELHI: In the face of high demand and closure of a number of its power generating units, Delhi experienced long and unscheduled power cuts on Wednesday as well.

Though with slight improvement in the weather, the peak demand dropped from 3,618 MW on Tuesday to 3,504 MW, there was no respite for the resident from the power cuts as the peak load-shedding was to the tune of 576 MW.

The main reason for the shortage was closure of a number of units with a total generation capacity of 642 MW. Also, as against its installed capacity of 1,700 MW, Delhi was producing just about 1,000 MW of power. The forced outage or sudden closure of units was to the extent of 166 MW. This included a 30 MW unit of Gas Turbine (GT) due to high vibration in turbine, another 30 unit of GT due to loss of excitation and a 34 MW unit of GT-STG due to tripping of a 100 MVA transformer. Problem in a feed pump also led to closure of a 42 MW unit at IP while electrical fault led to shutting down of a 22 MW unit at Auraiya GT.

But it were the planned outages which were a greater cause for concern. Totalling 476 MW these were primarily caused due to non-functioning of a 210 MW unit of Badarpur Thermal Power Station because of hydrogen coolant leakage, closure of a 67.5 MW unit of Rihand Power House and of a 44 MW unit of Singrauli due to overhauling.

As most of these faults would still take some time to be rectified and till then the units will not be able to function, the power crisis in the Capital will persist till at least the weekend, officials sources said.

The only ray of hope for Delhi is a decline in the demand due to arrival of the monsoon. With the rains, the demand is expected to go down and that would provide some respite to most Delhiites from long hours of power cuts.

Incidentally, on Tuesday the power situation was really bad with the load shedding reaching a high of 783 MW. Of this 606 MW was in BSES areas while 177 MW was in NDPL areas. The load-shedding had to be primarily resorted to by the power distribution companies due to low frequency and to restrict overdrawal from the Northern Grid.

PTI adds: Protesting against the heavy load shedding in Mayur Vihar Phase-II, the BJP General Secretary Satyeshwari Johsi staged a demonstration with about 200 womenfolk at the local electricity office.

The protesters dispersed after power was restored in the area and an assurance reportedly wrested from the authorities that there would be nor load shedding without any valid reason.

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