NEW DELHI, June 23 (UNI) The capital is reeling under frequent power cuts which, coupled with continuing heatwave conditions have made life quite hard for Delhiites.
Moreover, the proposed hike in electricity tariff is going to make the powercuts even more unbearable.
Last night, large areas of the capital were plunged into darkness as the 330 Megawatt Nathpa Jhakri plant in Himachal Pradesh stopped power supply for nearly 12 hours creating an acute shortage in the capital, Transco Director (Operations) R S Sethi said.
He, however, said today the total power supplied was 3626 MW which, he said, was sufficient to meet the peak demand.
Yesterday, the capital overdrew 500 MW from the grid.
Delhi Principal Secretary Arun Goel also maintained that barring some exceptions, the capital has been ensured enough power supplythrough various sources for the summer.
Blaming the severe power cuts experienced in several parts of South Delhi during the past 48 hours to a combination of reasons, BSES Corporate Communications Chief Kanwaljit Ratan said, " not only was the supply 350 Megawatt short, the weather was also extremely hot leading to overdrawing from the grid.
Besides, six transformers managed by the Transco were also out.
" We also had several local breakdowns.
Like in Malviya Nagar, some trees got uprooted and fell on some cables causing a breakdown.
All these factors together caused major upset in the system which is why the public suffered," he said.
Talking about today's power scenario, he said, " we are still running about 100 Megawatt short and the transformers are being worked on a war footing, so by this evening things will definitely improve" he said.
According to Ratan, the long summer spell with record high temperatures in the past few days has added to the electricity demand in the city leading to "overdrawing." " This leads to an upset in the grid which is why we have to resort to loadshedding in a cyclical manner else the whole system will collapse,"he added.
The Delhi government, which had promised drastic improvement in the situation post privatisation of power in the capital in 2002, is facing heavy criticism by citizens' groups and the opposition for the present situation.
