No major power outages this year as peak power demand drops to 5,834 MW

NEW DELHI: After touching a record 7,000 mega watt in June, the peak power demand in the Capital has now dropped to 5,834 MW, owing to the onset of monsoon. In spite of the high demand, an official of the Delhi Power Department said the city witnessed no power outages.

A spokesperson of the Delhi government said, “The biggest achievement of the government is smooth power supply with minimum load shedding and 50 per cent slashing of power bill of consumers without any tariff hike in the last four years.”

Compared to the 7,000 MW figure this year, the peak power demand during summer

last year was 6,526 MW, then the highest-ever in the Capital.

Experts in the power sector say this is a major achievement by the government and the distribution companies (disocoms), considering that power demands in the city have been progressively increasing each year.

Last year, Delhi witnessed 0.06 per cent of power loadshedding, the lowest-ever among any metropolitan city in the country, said an official of the complaints cell.

Government officials have told discoms to avoid loadshedding in summer, and if power cuts are absolutely inevitable they should not be limited to slums and all areas must face interrupted power cuts, not exceeding one hour.

According to official of discoms, some areas face temporary power outages due to

local faults, but even these are repaired within 15 minutes and power is restored.

“Delhi has become a power guzzler in the last few years and to be able to meet this demand means the technology and network used for the purpose is of high quality. However, the Delhi government should also focus on reducing power demands by giving power saving alternatives,” say officials of discoms.

In case of unauthorised or extended power outages, discoms are charged a penalty of Rs 50 per hour per consumer for the first two hours, followed by Rs 100 for each subsequent hour.

“There is a major relief to

lower middle-income as well as resettlement residents, who are consuming power below 400 unit per month. In the

last two years, there has been no increase in power tariff in Delhi,” said a senior official in the Chief Minister’s office.