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Static worry: Power demand reaches all-time high, city faces crippling outages

Many areas in Delhi even then experienced frequent power cuts

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Last week, Delhi's power demand reached an all-time high of 6,526 MW. Even after the Delhi government claimed demands up to 8,000 MW will be managed, many parts of the city have been facing crippling power outages.

"The power cuts in our area continue for three-four hours. There is no prior information about the outages and we have to be dependent on the power back-up," said Ramesh Singh, a resident of Burari in north Delhi district.

The 6,000 MW-mark was breached for the first time on May 16, 2016 and then the demand touched 6,261 MW a month later. Many areas in Delhi even then experienced frequent power cuts.

According to officials, power theft is rampant in areas like south, west, east and north Delhi where the demand is high, including Burari, Jehangirpuri, Wazirabad, Najafgargh, Jaffarpur, Mundka, Karawal Nagar, Seelampur, Mandawali, Chandni Mahal, Nand Nagari, Turkman Gate, Yamuna Vihar, Daryaganj, Dallupura, Old Seelampur, Khichripur, Shastri Park, Baljeet Nagar, Sabhapur village, Badarpur, and Shaheen Bagh.

"Lack of space to augment the electricity network at times impacts power supply. This is a concern especially in unauthorised colonies. This impairs the discoms' ability to adequately expand the network in these areas. Power theft in unauthorised colonies impacts supply in adjoining planned colonies also," said a senior government official.

The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Anil Baijal, recently approved a proposal made by the Delhi government to penalise discoms for power cuts. As per the plan, discoms will compensate the general public for unscheduled power cuts in the city.

According to the compensation policy on power outages, that has been struck down by the high court since, a penalty of Rs 50 per hour per consumer was to be levied for the first two hours followed by Rs 100 for every subsequent hour.

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