Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 11: Amidst intense unprecedented heatwave and water shortage, Delhi on Tuesday also suffered a massive power outage following a fire in a power grid in Uttar Pradesh which supply 1,500 MW power to the national capital.
According to officials, the power cut was due to a snag in the grid stations of Delhi Transco Ltd due to high power demand and excessive heat. Officials also said that government engineers were working on it and that power would be restored soon.
There were power cuts in several parts of the capital city after a power grid in UP’s Mandola caught fire, Delhi Power Minister Atishi said. The cause of the fire remains unknown.
Taking to social media platform X, Delhi Power Minister Atishi said the power outage was due to a fire at a sub-station of the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) in Mandola, Uttar Pradesh. “There is power outage in many parts of Delhi from 2:11pm. This is due to a fire at sub-station of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) in Mandola, UP. Delhi receives 1500 MW of power from the Mandola sub-station, and therefore many parts of Delhi have been affected,” Atishi wrote in her post. We are linking it to our other power sources,” she added. The temperature in Delhi this afternoon hovered around 42 degrees Celsius.
“I will seek an appointment with the new Union Power Minister today since the country’s power transmission is run by the central government,” said the minister.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, criticising the Centre, said, “It is worrying that the national-level power infrastructure has come to a standstill today. The failure of the national grid in the country’s capital is quite worrying. There was no power cut even when Delhi’s peak power demand reached 8,000 MW. This power cut happened due to the failure of the national infrastructure.”
The AAP government in Delhi and the centre’s BJP government-appointed Lieutenant Governor had been at loggerheads on various issues, the latest one being on water crisis issue. The LG Mr VK Saxena had recently asked the Delhi government to refrain from blaming the BJP government in Haryana for the water crisis facing the national capital even though the state government had during a hearing in the Supreme Court had refused to give way for the passage of 137 cusecs of water to be released by the Himachal Pradesh government to quench Delhi’s thirst. The Delhi AAP government had accused the Haryana government of not releasing Delhi’s share of water creating the crisis in the national capital.
An intense and unprecedented heatwave has been sweeping Delhi for nearly a month now with temperatures soaring north of 50 degrees Celsius on some days. The India Meteorological Department has predicted that heatwave conditions will prevail in most parts of the city.
The AAP minister informed that the power restoration process has begun, and electricity is gradually returning to different areas. The AAP minister further highlighted the limited electricity production within Delhi noting that the majority of the city’s electricity is sourced from outside.
