Power demand ups as ACs turned on

GURUGRAM: As the temperature rises, the power demand in Gurugram has shot up to 244 lakh units per day, triggering frequent power cuts across the city.
As per official records, 16 feeders in the Gurugram circle remained closed for more than an hour on Friday. However, officials have ascribed the shutdown to “planned maintenance” work.

Consumers told TOI that many areas witnessed night-long power cuts with neither discom officials nor the grievance cell taking calls from them.

Residents are aggrieved that power cuts are increasing with rising heat levels. The temperature on Saturday touched 41 degrees Celsius. “The power cuts are very frequent. What is the discom doing? Every day, they claim that they will provide uninterrupted power supply, yet the opposite happens,” said Sharyar Khan, a resident of South City 1.

Sector 21 and 23A residents also complained of overnight power cuts. Sector 21 residents said that frequent outages were becoming the norm. Aashish, a resident of Sector 23A, said, “On Friday, we had to grapple with the heat after a power shutdown in the middle of the night.”

On a given summer day, the average power demand in Gurugram hovers between 150-250 lakh units per day. The highest demand recorded in the city was on June 5, 2017, when it touched a record 288 lakh units. Gurugram has over 5 lakh consumers and officials said that this year, they were expecting the demand to exceed 300 lakh units.

Nearly 20,000 new connections have been installed in the city in 2018, so far. That factor is likely to reflect on the demand.

Talking about new inputs, a discom official said, “We have added over 317 transformers and over 50 feeders have been bifurcated, this year.”

But consumers across Gurugram expressed disapproval over what they believe are “unusually frequent” power cuts. “This year, the power cuts are more frequent than what we witnessed the previous year,” said Naved Khan, a resident of Sector 69.

When Gurugram suffers power cuts, consumers end up paying two times more because diesel generator sets which are on tariff rate doubles the expenditure.

However, officials denied reports that shutdowns in Gurugram were unscheduled. “We don’t arbitrarily shut down power. Besides, if there is a major shutdown, it will come to our notice,” an official said.

Discom officials said on Sunday morning, power would be disconnected on a feeder for “planned maintenance” work, affecting some areas in IMT Manesar. The shutdown, they said, would last for three hours. Another 8-hour shutdown is also on the anvil for Sunday that is set to affect Begumpur Khatola and some areas of Kherki village.