Midsummer nightmare: Power cuts haunt Capital

Delhi Power minister Satyendar Jain told reporters that supply was affected as power generation units at the Badarpur Thermal Power Station (BTPS) and the Pragati Power Plant tripped after a current transformer of the 220kV Samaypur Palwal line blasted.

Supply got crippled at around 2.30 pm when the city’s peak power load was around 5,800 MW, authorities said. The system was “fully normalised” by 5.30 pm, state-run Delhi Transco said.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government said the NTPC-run Badarpur plant was operating below capacity since May 1. 

“Badarpur power plant was closed for two hours on May 1, for 21 hours on May 10. One of its units remained completely dysfunctional between May 11 and May 21. It was again closed between June 

3 and June 6. It affected power supply in South and East Delhi,” Jain said.

The thermal power plant, which is coal-based, was identified as a major polluter by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) last year and was served an immediate closure notice, although later a 210 MW unit was given permission to operate, while four others were shut down. 

Power demand in the national Capital has gone up alarmingly this summer with the rise in mercury recently. It touched an all-time high of 6,188 MW. 

At 6,000 MW, Delhi’s peak power demand is over 65 per cent  more than Mumbai (around 3,700  MW), almost thrice than Kolkata (around 2,100 MW) and nearly four times the power demand of Chennai (1,500-1,800 MW).

Local faults have contributed to the crisis. The discoms and some power officials say these are taking place due to the network getting little time to cool down since power load remains consistently high. The government blames the distribution companies as well for lack of “routine maintenance”.