)
Amid the sweltering heat here, large parts of the city faced power cuts Friday night and early on Saturday. To address the power crisis, the Delhi government, currently under the Centre's rule, held two rounds of meetings with private distribution companies Reliance Infrastructure-promoted BSES and Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd, besides its own transmission company.
With large parts of the North reeling under a heat wave, the peak power demand in eight states and Chandigarh soared from 40,543 Mw on Thursday to 42,122 Mw on Friday, though the shortage fell from 2,516 Mw to 1,800 Mw, according to the northern region Load Dispatch Centre.
Most power issues are due to transmission problems. At the meeting on Saturday, Delhi government officials assured the two distribution companies transmission lines would be upgraded. A senior executive in one of the distribution companies said they had been pointing to the transmission concerns since long.
Friday evening, a transmission line at Okhla in south Delhi developed a snag, a flash-over in technical parlance, which led to power cuts, especially in south of the capital.
Citing the poor power situation, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) took potshots at the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre, saying the central government was answerable for the situation. "Major power cuts across Delhi. The BJP needs to explain and take immediate action," AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal tweeted.
Till late evening on Saturday, many areas in the capital recorded load-shedding of up to two hours a day.
Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, under whom the current administration was being run, on Friday said many areas of the city might continue to face planned blackouts for a few more days, as it was taking time to repair the power towers and lines damaged in the storm that had hit the city last week.
"Before the storm struck, we were generating about 5,000 Mw of electricity; this was reduced to 1,000 Mw (after the storm). Now, we are producing 4,600-4,700 Mw. The problem is some big towers and lines fell in the storm, and repairing them will take some time," Jung said.
Owing to the heat wave, the power demand in the city has shot up to 6,000 Mw. "So, to cope with the crisis, there could be blackouts for another three to four days," Jung said.
On May 30 winds at speeds of about 90 km an hour had plunged most areas of the capital into darkness, as uprooted trees had snapped many power lines.
