Give us 24x7 power or lift genset ban, say Gurugram industrialists

GURUGRAM: Frequent power outages, coupled with the implementation of a blanket ban on the use of diesel generators in view of the rising air pollution levels, have adversely impacted the production of industries in Gurugram and Manesar.
Industrial associations said even though the power situation has improved in the past few months, short circuits and tripping in transformers are still common. As it takes time for Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vidyut Nigam (DHBVN) staff to fix the issue and restore the power supply, industries have no other option but to rely on diesel gensets, they said.
According to industrialists, the genset ban has led to disruption in the production cycle and losses of raw material, adversely impacting overall operations.
“Every time there’s an outage, we inform DHBVN officials. It then takes some time for power supply to resume. At times, it takes an hour or more. During this time, if we don’t rely on gensets to keep the momentum of production going, we suffer losses,” Udyog Vihar Industrial Association president Animesh Saxena said.
“Besides the time loss, materials get wasted and certain processes have to be started from scratch. The blanket genset ban needs to be reviewed. We should be given some respite,” he added.
Industries have demanded that the discom either assure them of uninterrupted supply and speedy resolution of power failures, or allow them to use diesel gensets as an alternative to plug the gap. “An outage of 30 minutes to an hour can severely impact production. That’s why industries rely on diesel gensets,” Gurugram Industrial Association president JN Mangla said.
In a recently held meeting on ease of doing business in Gurugram, DHBVN claimed that its average power supply time is over 23 hours and 50 minutes. It had brushed aside requests to provide an exemption to industries from the genset ban.
DHBVN officials claimed that the power situation has largely improved in the city and that the faulty transformers have also been replaced to reduce the chances of failures due to infrastructural issues. “The power outage issue in the city has been addressed and we are working towards making the city genset-free. The turnaround time for addressing complaints of power failures has also come down significantly and our staff is working round-the-clock to fix power failures at the earliest,” said a senior DHBVN official.