www.timesofindia.com

Entire city blacks out for 15 minutes By A Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: The entire city, including the VIP areas, went without power for around 15 minutes on Thursday morning due to under-frequency tripping of all the power plants in Delhi. The power-cuts were longer in other parts of city and in fact continued right through the day.

A DVB spokesman said, ``Supply was restored to the VIP areas, hospitals and water pumping stations within 20 minutes.'' For the duration of the blackout these VIP areas switched to generators.

The problem occurred when the frequency in the northern grid came down to 46 hertz. It tripped the IP power plant, Rajghat, gas turbines and the Badarpur power plant. The Mandola sub-station in UP which provides nearly 1200 to 1300 MW to Delhi also tripped, adding to the problems. The frequency dipped due to a fault in Dadri and the consequent short supply in the Mandola grid.

Delhi only had around 275 MW of power between 10 am to 12 noon, after which the IP power plant and Rajghat resumed generation. Two units of Rajghat, three of IP station and three units of the gas turbine started production. Around the same time, the Mandola lines also were rectified, which provided power to large areas. By 5 pm, three units of the Badarpur plant also started generating power.

This was the second time this winter that the city went without power due to tripping in the northern grid. Last month also, large parts of the city had gone without power for similar reasons. The Northern Region Load Dispatch Centre (NRLDC) is conducting an inquiry into reasons which caused the under frequency.

There was a flood of complaints from all over the city. A school- teacher from South Extension complained that the pre-boards of class XII students are beginning from Friday and massive power cuts are leaving students in a state of panic. She added that her school which is in East of Kailash also has to bear with power cuts, due to which students are not able to work on their computers. The teacher added that even parents are getting worried as power cuts have sometimes stretched till late in the evenings.

Secretary of the Maya Enclave residents welfare association Parminder Singh said they woke up to a power cut which lasted for more than half a day. He added that the last couple of days power has been playing truant. ``When we inquire at the local office of the DVB, staffers only say that the problem is elsewhere. They do not have much information on how long the problem will last,'' Singh said. He added that their water supply is power dependent and they had to make do without water in the morning.

A resident from Vikas Vihar also rang up to say that either their colony had power cuts or it had extremely low voltage. Mr VK Keshub said, ``we have a major problem since morning and now that power has finally been restored at around 5 pm, it is to low that we can't even switch on our appliances.''

-- Someone (someone@somewhere.com), January 06, 2000