Noida residents complain of voltage fluctuations, power cuts

NOIDA: As temperatures soar, residents from some sectors of Noida complain of voltage fluctuation and local faults leading to brief power cuts. While in Sector 92 there was a four-hour-long outage from 2am to 6am on Monday, in Sector 28 residents complained of frequent voltage fluctuations and local faults.
“We had an early morning outage for about four hours on Monday. While all feeders in our sector are in poor condition, all power-related infrastructure is in urgent need of maintenance. As a result, we face daily fluctuations. The problem has been pending since last year where some feeder pillars were changed, but the job is still incomplete," said S K Jain, a resident of Sector 28.
Colonel (retired) Shashi Vaid, the chairman of Arun Vihar Residents Welfare Association (AVRWA that caters Sectors 28, 29 and 37) maintained every year around peak summer season the problem of voltage fluctuations and outage begins. “Our residents are facing problems of voltage fluctuations and local faults leading to disruption in electricity supply. On Monday, the power supply was cut in some houses of Sector 28. While no apparent reason is given, mostly faults due to voltage fluctuations or poor infrastructure result in these outages,” said Vaid.
Similar problems were reported from Sectors 30, 20, 55, 12 among others.
According to officials from the power department, there are no supply issues currently as only domestic consumption is in use and repair and maintenance work is already underway. “We are getting enough supply of 1,000 plus MW as only domestic consumption of 450-500 MW is in use with commercial and industries shut. However, we are continuing with repair and maintenance work, including feeder upgrades in phases across the city. The problems mentioned were local issues which were fixed,” said VN Singh, the chief zonal engineer of Noida power department, Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (PVVNL).
Additionally, residents also complained of lack of AC, refrigerator and air-cooler service in sectors, especially in containment zones. Many of the residents require mandatory service as per warranty agreement of new equipment purchased last year but are unable to do so. “People who brought air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines etc. are not getting services from the authorised companies even if it is in warranty due to many areas being containment zones and lack of mobility. We are forced to get it repaired from local persons which may add to problems of future service from authorised dealers,” said Suresh Krishnan, a resident from Sector 11.