'BSES discoms met Delhi's unprecedented power demand in May'

The two BSES distribution companies in the national capital were able to meet Delhi's unprecedented power demand last week when it touched a record 6,188 MW, equipped with additional measures taken by the discoms, a compnay spokesperson said on Friday.

"On May 20, Delhi's peak power demand clocked 6,188 MW, the highest-ever, and an increase of over 23 percent from the peak power demand witnessed in the third week of May last year," he said.

Declaring that BSES met this unprecedented power demand, he said that BSES discoms have made arrangements to source adequate power through long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) "and banking arrangements with other states."

"Despite taking adequate measures, some of the areas have witnessed outages, an important reason for which has been continuous high temperatures and resultant unprecedented power demand round the clock.

"Electricity network is also not getting sufficient time to cool down. This is stressing the network and leading to an increase in faults," the spokesperson said.

The steps taken by BSES in the last few days include augmenting call centre seats by 50 percent, operating additional numbers for complaints, setting up an emergency control room to monitor faults, and deploying quick response teams and additional manpower for faster resolution of complaints, he added.

BSES said it is working in tandem with generation companies and Delhi Transco Ltd (DTL) to ensure generation, distribution and transmission networks are aligned to meet the summer load.

A Delhi government official had said after the outages that Delhi Transco's 220 KV Ballabgarh circuit was over-loaded, which impacted power supply in parts of south Delhi, including Okhla and adjoining areas.

"During fiscal 2015-2016, BSES discoms invested a capex of over Rs.550 crore to strengthen the infrastructure and added transformation capacity of over 450 MVA.

"Three, 50 MVA EHV Grids were commissioned in central Delhi, Najafgargh and Mundka to take care of the growing power demand. These new grids have helped meet the additional power demand," the spokesperson said.

--IANS

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