Snapping power supply to shopping malls after 10 PM and switching off street lights during peak hours were some of the urgent measures ordered today by the Delhi government as the city continued to suffer long outages with the mercury crossing the 45 degrees Celsius mark.
Areas across the national capital faced blackouts of up to seven hours as major power transmission lines damaged by the devastating storm 10 days back could not be restored by Delhi Transco Ltd, the Delhi Government utility tasked to maintain the major transmission network.
Appealing people to bear with the situation, Lt Governor Najeeb Jung asked citizens to come forward and help conserve energy by running their air-conditioners at 25 degree centigrade or above and take all measures at home and offices to save electricity.
"The Government is aware of the hardship being faced by the people and continues to take all steps to ease the situation. It appeals to the people to avoid agitational modes that often hamper restoration process wherever faults appear," the LG's office said in a statement.
At a meeting Jung held with top government officials and CEOs private power distribution companies, the Lt Governor ordered that power supply to shopping malls should not be made available after 10 PM.
It was also decided that high mast halogen lamps in the streets, which consume more power, will be switched off during night peak hours to conserve energy.
Government establishments, including Delhi Secretariat and other government offices, universities, colleges have been advised to switch off air conditioning between 3.30 to 4.30 PM to conserve power during day peak hours.
This does not include emergency services and critical institutions such as hospitals etc.
