The Hindu : New Delhi News : Powerless and waterless, Delhi sweats and frets

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Friday, Jun 26, 2009
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Powerless and waterless, Delhi sweats and frets

Staff Reporter

Photo: R. V. Moorthy

HOT DAZE: Braving the scorching heat with umbrellas in Delhi on Thursday. -

NEW DELHI: There was no relief in sight for the Capital’s citizens from power cuts, water shortage and abnormally high temperatures even on Thursday. Faced with a shortage of more than 400 MW, the city continued to sweat.

A day after Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit urged the citizens to use power judiciously, cuts ranging from five to eight hours were reported from several parts of South-West Delhi, West Delhi and East Delhi. Power cuts also affected water supply in many areas.

“There was no power in the morning when we receive the water supply, so we ended up with no water as well. There was no power supply from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m.,” rued Pooja Kaul, a resident of Vikaspuri in West Delhi.

Complaining that the power supply had been erratic for days, she said: “It is absolutely distressing when there is no power for hours on end during night. Since we don’t sleep well, our performance at work gets affected.”

Long power cuts were reported from Patparganj, Laxmi Nagar, Kondli and Mayur Vihar in East Delhi; Uttam Nagar, Janakpuri and Vikas Kunj in West Delhi; Mahipalpur, South Extension, Lajpat Nagar, Greater Kailash, Vasant Kunj, Gulmohur Park and Haus Khas in South Delhi; and Mukherjee Nagar, Kamla Nagar and Civil Lines in North Delhi.

Shortfall of power on account of increased demand and low generation apart, local faults resulting in power cuts too have become a bane, complain residents.

“On Tuesday night the power went off at 11 p.m. and was restored only at 2 a.m. We were told it was some local fault. Then there was a blast in the transformer in the first half of the day, resulting in a power cut from 12-30 p.m. onwards,” complained Rachna Gosain of Malviya Nagar.

The peak load on the system was 3,966 MW at 4-20 p.m. and Delhi’s generation was 1,270 MW. Power Department officials said the demand for power had peaked in the absence of rain and frequent under-frequency relays demanded load-shedding to be carried out several times through the day.

Officials claimed that load-shedding amounting to 20-375 MW was carried out between 12 a.m. and 2 a.m. and again from 10 a.m. to prevent a grid collapse.

“The low frequency is because of outages of various generating units in the Northern and Eastern regions including two units of 500 MW capacity at Singrauli and less availability from hydro-power stations,” said officials.

Meanwhile, Jal Board officials claimed the water level in the Wazirabad pond had dipped from 673.9 metres to 673.6 metres but Delhi’s water supply was “stable”.

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