Gurugram in grip of power crisis

Sumedha Sharma

Gurugram is battling all-time high temperatures of around 47°C and the worst power crisis. The smart grid project is yet to be completed and the city is reeling under severe heat wave. Though the authorities concerned say that there is no power shortage in Gurugram, residents are suffering due to unscheduled power cuts and outages. The residents of posh condominiums and rural areas alike are taking to streets or venting their anger on social media highlighting that areas like Palam Vihar have gone without power for long 30 hours. 

People are seeking the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar to resolve the problem. Even the areas that are getting power supply are experiencing voltage fluctuations, causing damage to household electrical appliances. Most of the housing societies have installed generator sets for 24-hour power supply and are charging helpless residents as high as Rs 25 per unit. In many housing societies residents have themselves rented generators, leading to pollution.

The situation is worse in rural areas where residents are unable to afford generators and hence have to go without power even during night. Many small commercial units have been shut for over a week now. Pictures of residents spending nights in cars or hotels are going viral on twitter. 

Gurugram city, as per the records, has hit an all-time high power consumption of over 3.20 crore units but DHBVN officials say that there is no demand and supply gap and cuts are occurring due to weather conditions like the recent dust storm or equipment damage or failure due to overload. According to the DHBVN officials, problems are being faced only in areas where the Power Department is yet to take over maintenance work or where the infrastructure provided by the builders isn’t up to the mark. Many of these areas have recently been brought under the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation Gurugram (MCG) but the power infrastructure is yet to be transferred to it. In Sushant Lok-1 block C, residents spent more than 20 hours without power after at least three transformers were damaged around 10.30 pm on Tuesday last week. Residents say that transformers get damaged repeatedly due to fire or cable faults. While they blame the DHBVN for the crisis, not much attention has been paid to the real reasons behind the chaos.

Laxity of civic authorities 

While the Electricity Department is facing the ire of residents and many of its officials have been thrashed, the situation has compounded mainly due to the failure of the local civic authorities to curtail and regulate consumption overload. Most of the areas reporting long power outages are home to illegal paying guest accommodation, chawls and guesthouses that have overburdened the available power infrastructure, leading to equipment failure. Houses with declared power load for two air-conditioners have been converted into four-floor paying guest accommodation with 15 air-conditioners. 

Similarly, in rural areas chawls housing over 100 migrants have been created in plots as small as 60 square yards. Many of these chawls are still using kundi connections, burdening the electricity infrastructure. Illegal colonies, guesthouses and power theft at ongoing construction sites across the city are the major causes of the crisis. 

Obsolete equipment  

The dream of 24X7 power supply goes bust as one visits old Gurugram, including HUDA sectors. Age-old transformers, loosely hanging wires and obsolete equipment characterise the power infrastructure in the area. Residents of areas like Jacobpura say that often transformers blast and electricity poles catch fire during summer but they are not replaced. These are temporarily repaired rather than finding a permanent solution.

Less power load declared 

While residents point the finger at the authorities, they are also the culprits. Not many of them have declared proper power load despite several campaigns inviting applications launched by the authorities and still they continue to buy new electrical appliances. DHBVN sources say power snags occur mostly at night when all air-conditioners function without having declared proper load. 

At the mercy of builders

The power shortage is severe in areas comprising settlements or housing societies maintained by builders. While selling homes the builders promise 24-hour power supply but later residents are forced to use generators in the absence of proper power infrastructure. People have been at the receiving end as no authority has ever held them accountable for not providing proper power infrastructure and penalised them. Palam Vihar is a glaring example of the problem. 

Sanjiv Chopra, Chief Engineer, DHBVN, says, “There is no power crisis in Gurugram city. Many people are posting comments on social media about unscheduled power cuts that are actually happening due to faults in their meter fuse. In the recent dust storm, power equipment was damaged as many trees fell on electricity poles and the restoration of supply took some time. The areas where the power crisis is being claimed are those that have not been transferred to us. We are still reaching out to residents. Most of the people who take to social media never complain to us”. 

Builder, DHBVN unconcerned

We had a dedicated feeder at Ghari Harsaru  around eight to nine months ago but during the construction of a road the underground power line got disconnected and was temporarily connected to a shared rural feeder, which could not take excessive load. The builder has to get the line changed from the shared feeder to an independent feeder. Intended frequent electricity cuts and high voltage fluctuations cause discomfort to people of all age groups and damage electrical appliances. Still worse is that we have been without the main power supply for almost 24 hours. Around 1,500 families have been impacted due to power outages in the last one month but there has been no satisfactory response from the builder or the DHBVN. —Praveen Malik, President, Resident Welfare Association, SARE Homes, Sector  92

We have four phases in our housing society but only phase 1 and 2 are complete. The Resident Welfare Association formed for phase 1 and 2 two months ago improvises a lot in terms of basic facilities, safety, security, and management. However, the society being a single township the electricity infrastructure is still with the builder and we are his pre-paid customers while he pays to the DHBVN later. We are being looted in the name of power backup being provided at the rate of Rs 20 per  unit. It’s the builder’s responsibility to provide us uninterrupted electricity supply but he is not bothered. We urge the government and the administration to take action against him.  —DN Chaudhary, Senior citizen