The Hindu : New Delhi News : A squall, and the power goes kaput

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Saturday, May 23, 2009
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New Delhi

A squall, and the power goes kaput

Staff Reporter

Two towers on the Kashmere Gate-Wazirabad line got tilted hitting power supply

Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma

Fun time: Children enjoying themselves in the rain which brought much needed relief from the heat in the Capital on Friday.

NEW DELHI: A squall in the afternoon that brought the temperature down by a few notches also led to power cuts in several areas of the Capital, particularly in East Delhi, on Friday.

According to State Power Department officials, the two 220-kV towers on the Kashmere Gate-Wazirabad line tilted heavily during the squall, which resulted in snapping of power supply to East Delhi. Power cuts due to the mishap lasted more than three hours.

While repair work on the two towers located near Shastri Park will take a couple of days, the Power Department has assured that the areas will be supplied electricity from nearby sources.

Power Department officials said they had to island the problem areas and power from other sources was being routed to the affected areas.

The islanding and tripping of the Mandola line also affected the functioning of the city’s three power plants. Officials said the Raj Ghat, Indraprastha and Pragati power plants were shut down for over two hours due to the effect of the squall.

“The situation was restored by late afternoon, but rotational load-shedding in the range of 100-250 MW was carried out at several places in the city,” said an official.

The dip in temperature lowered the peak demand for power from 4,107 MW to 4,006 MW. With the city’s own generation at 1,178 MW, it had to overdraw more than 250 MW of power to meet the demand.

The maximum temperature on Friday was 42 degrees Celsius and the minimum 28.1 degrees. Delhi also received 1 mm of rain.

The Meteorological Department has forecast partly cloudy sky with possibility of rain and thundershowers in the next 24 hours. The maximum and minimum temperature is likely to hover around 40 degrees and 28.1 degrees Celsius respectively.

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