In 45 degrees celsius, 5-hour daily outages in #Ghaziabad, worse in store

LUCKNOW/NOIDA: People in Ghaziabad complained of four to five hours of power cuts on Tuesday, and that is likely to get worse in the coming days. With temperatures stuck in the mid-forties, even power officials admitted that the shortfall is likely to increase as demand soars.

On Tuesday, Delhi recorded a maximum temperature of 45 degrees Celsius, and there is no major relief in sight till June 2, when rain is predicted. There may be a thunderstorm on either Thursday or Friday, but that will not take the edge out of the heat wave.

In this scorching heat, power demand in UP spiked to 13,800 MW on Tuesday, against 13,000 MW on Monday. In Ghaziabad the demand was pegged at 875 MW, while in Noida it was 800 MW.

The sudden rise in demand caught UP Power Corporation Ltd off guard. As against a total supply of around 12,600 MW on Monday, power supply increased by only 200 MW to 12,800 MW.

While UPPCL recorded a shortfall of around 1,000 MW (based on restricted demand – or demand that factors in rostering, not 24-hour supply), the real shortfall would work out to over 8,000 MW, if one were to consider uninterrupted supply.