Residents of Noida and Greater Noida have been facing acute power shortage despite a low surface demand for power.
The discom had announced two hours of roasting in the region from August but the outages have been reported for over six to 10 hours everyday across the region. Residents blame the power company for the recent crisis while officials of the Electricity Department claim that poor transmission system and supply of power to neighbouring Ghaziabad are the reasons behind this deficit.
Residents and industrialists have complained that the duration of dim-outs have been three to four times more than the timings fixed by the Electricity Department.
In the last couple of weeks, blackouts have been reportedly between 10 minutes to up to four hours. locals complained that more than six hour power cuts were witnessed over the past few weekends. The industrial sector too has been adversely affected due to the power disruption.
In Greater Noida, even the affluent areas are not immune to outages. Dadri, Surajpur and Jewar are the worst affected. There have been around 8 to 12 hours of power outages in the rural belt of Greater Noida.
A senior official of the Noida Electricity Department, however, said that load-shedding for fixed hours was ordered due to transient technical snafus.
“The problem is also due to a faulty system of power transmission and if we do not replace the old lines and instruments, it will be difficult to ensure regular supply in the region,” said Cl Gupta, Superintending Engineer of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation limited (UPPCl), Noida.
Meanwhile, in order to ensure uninterrupted power supply in Noida and Greater Noida, the Noida Power Company limited (NPCl), a venture of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation limited (UPPCl), has decided to install a high capacity transformer of 500 MVA at Pali power sub-station in Greater Noida.
Officials have said that the move will help in reducing power cuts to a great extent as the capacity of the sub-station has been enhanced to 1445 MVA from the existing 945 MVA. The NPCl has also demanded `500 crore from the UPPCl and Noida Authority to improve transmission and distribution network. A senior official of the NPCl said that presently there are only three transformers with the capacity of 315 MVA and that they are ancient to deal with the required load.