Delhi witnessed lowest ever power cuts this fiscal

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NEW DELHI: The national capital witnessed its lowest ever power cuts in the current financial year that also saw the highest ever peak power demand, according to a Delhi government data.

A government official said the reduction in power cut points towards improvement in processes and systems of electricity supply and transmission.

"At 0.06 percent, Delhi witnessed lowest ever load shedding in 2017-18. This is almost six times lower than 0.4 percent witnessed in 2014-15," the data stated.

Since 2014-15, the percentage of power cuts has been continuously dropping. From 0.4 percent in 2014-15 it dropped to 0.14 percent in 2015-16, 0.1 percent in 2016-17 and 0.06 percent in 2017-18, it stated.

Discom officials said this reduction in power cuts is noteworthy as the peak power demand has been rising over the years.

Delhi's peak power demand shot to 6526 MW on June 6, 2017, the highest ever.

The fact that the city’s electricity demand crossed the 6,500 MW reflects the robustness of power distribution and transmission system in the national capital, they said.

BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) and BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) together supply electricity to a nearly two-third area of Delhi. Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited supplies electricity to north and northwest Delhi.

The discoms attributed the decrease in power cuts to coordination among various stakeholders, strengthened network capacity, use of latest technology and adequate power purchase agreements to meet the city's electricity needs.

"Massive increase in the network capacity helped BSES discoms meet the unprecedented load growth. During 2016-2017, BSES discoms added a transformation capacity of around 600 MVA and installed over 670 transformers," a spokesperson of the company said.

Innovative ideas like double-decker substations and 2 MVA transformers in congested areas, a crackdown on power theft, focused monitoring, deployment of quick reaction teams to address local issues have also contributed to achieving the lowest ever power cut, he said.