With 20% increase, every year power use in Ggm sets new record in June

Gurugram: Two hours, six hours and even eighteen hours. If you are a resident of Gurugram chances are that you may have experienced power cuts in your homes and offices in the month of June. As in the past, these summer months again resulted in the power infrastructure not being able to cope up with the high demand. According to the official data, the power consumption rate in Gurugram is increasing every year by 20 percent. In 2015 where the power consumption used be 220 lakh units in 2019 it has surpassed 3.50 crore units. For the past few days, the amount of power consumed in just two circles of Gurugram touched three crores twenty-seven lakh units that resulted in the load shedding. With the transformers of the city electricity board unable to bear heavy electricity overload, most areas in the city are receiving a voltage supply of around 150-180 volts.

The officials of the city electricity board highlight that heavy electricity overload is resulting in a large number of cases of blasting of power cables that further results in power outages. There are also large numbers of complaints being registered of fluctuations in electric current resulting in most of the electrical appliances getting spoilt on a regular basis. The load shedding in Gurugram continues to

be a regular affair even as there has been an increase in the number of transformers from 15,228 in 2015 to 28,654 in 2019. Yet, the exponential increase in the rate of consumption of power has resulted in the power department not being able to cope up with the demand.

Other challenges that continue to plague the state power department is that there are still a large number of private colonies that are providing power to its infrastructure with inept power infrastructure. Also, there is also a high number of cases of power thefts that still continue to be reported from the city.

In 2015, 20 percent of the power was stolen in the city. Subsequently, the officials claim that the percentage of power stolen has come down to eight per cent which in the last few months of 2018 has reduced to six per cent.

Despite the reduction, the official estimate of more than Rs 400 crore of revenue is still due to certain people stealing power. The Haryana government is working on the smart grid project in Gurugram whereas all the electric wires will be laid underground. Through automation technology, if one phase will face an increased load it will get transferred to another part.