Violent protests in Delhi over power outages

Violent protests broke out on Wednesday in several areas in the national capital against power cuts which continued to make life difficult for people in the sweltering heat on a day the city recorded the highest electricity demand in the current year.

Irate protesters in Bhajanpura area of North East Delhi damaged a Delhi Transport Corporation bus while people in Khanpur in South Delhi and some other areas in East and North Delhi also resorted to violent protests against power cuts.

There has been loadshedding ranging from one to five hours in several areas of East, West and South Delhi as a number of major power transmission lines, damaged by the storm on May 10, are yet to be restored.

Power department officials said no loadshedding was reported in areas where power is supplied by Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd. They claimed the power supply improved today as the Bawana Power plant generated around 500 mega watt of power as additional gas was made available to it by GAIL. The gas-based plant has a capacity to generate 1,500 MW but was generating only 290 MW due to limited gas supply.

Further, one additional Gas Turbine and one Steam turbine have also been synchronized at Gas Turbine Power Station of Pragati Power Corporation which has led to additional generation of 50 MW of power.

"In the last twenty four hours, total demand of power in Delhi was 112.97 million units of which 111.41 million units was successfully supplied and 1.546 million units were shed due to transmission and distribution constraints," said a statement by the Delhi government.

It, however, admitted that reports of outages were received from different parts of the city. "The highest peak demand of 5470 MW was recorded at 2:45 pm which was successfully met," said a power department official.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government on Wednesday told all distribution companies that large-scale and repeated outages due to local faults will not be tolerated.

Further, they have been directed to increase the number of their mobile teams to constantly monitor the status of their distribution transformers all over the city, so that local faults can be addressed in real-time.