Large parts of the city reeled under power cuts for several hours on Thursday after a heavy fog cover led to tripping of power lines. Power department officials said the tripping occurred on account of the dense fog and heavy pollution.
Complaints of power cuts poured in from across the city as early as 2 a.m. and went up till late noon. According to a Delhi Transco Limited official, a few of the 220 kV transmission lines tripped due to heavy fog. He said the problem started occurring around 1 a.m.
“The disturbance was caused by dense fog and the restoration of power supply was done in a phased manner, which was completed by 12 p.m. with the improvement in weather conditions. The total load affected due to tripping was to the tune of 600 MW.”
Referring to the cause of the tripping, the official said: “Sometimes dust and the other pollutants in the air deposit on the insulators and occasionally lead to tripping of the lines. Delhi Transco has taken many initiatives to avoid such kind of disturbances and replaced all the porcelain insulators with silicon polymer insulator on all its 400 kV lines. This initiative has yielded favourable results and there is no tripping in 400 kV network due to fog this winter,” the official said.
DTL officials said plans are under way to replace the porcelain insulators on 220 kV lines in a phased manner. “Besides this, Delhi Transco regularly washes its line insulators to clean the dust, pollutants and other deposits to minimise the effect of fog. We have also organised washing of 220 kV network during the months of November and December 2011 and the second phase of washing is going on,” the official said.
The tripping on Thursday led to power cuts for as long as six hours in Rohini, Vasant Kunj, Mayur Vihar, Geeta Colony, Laxmi Nagar Patparganj, R. K. Puram, Kalkaji, Malviya Nagar, Bikaji Cama Place, Green Park, Mehrauli, Mahipalpur, Sabzi Mandi, Yamuna Vihar, Bawana, Gopalpur, Subzimandi, Kanjhanwala and Shalimar Bagh.
Interruption in power supply in the morning caused inconvenience to the Delhiites. “Not only is it cold and foggy, but with no electricity first thing in the morning, one's daily routine is severely disrupted. We could not heat water or use other appliances that are needed on a daily basis. One just hopes this does not become a daily feature,” said Manisha Tiwari, a resident of Vasant Kunj.
The peak load during last 24 hours was 3,265 MW. The drawal of power from generating stations within Delhi was 1100 MW and the drawal from Central sector stations was to the tune of 2,165 MW.
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Printable version | Jul 30, 2022 12:46:41 am | https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/power-supply-hit-as-dense-fog-leads-to-tripping-of-lines/article2780034.ece