Residents along the Dwarka Expressway in Gurugram were forced to spend the night inside cars with air conditioners running after a massive blackout hit more than 43 societies and townships on Monday evening when the 220kV substation of Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited (HVPNL) in Sector 107 developed a fault following heavy rainfall, discom officials said on Wednesday.
According to officials of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (DHBVN), at least 56,000 to 60,000 families across three subdivisions were left without electricity for 8 to 20 hours. At least 13 switching stations of 33kVA that supply power to these societies had shut down. Residents alleged that power supply was restored in some cases only after nearly 20 hours.
Builders said affordable housing complexes often exclude generator backup to keep maintenance costs low for residents.
Societies such as ROF Aalayas and BPTP Amstoria in Sector 102, M3M Woodshire in Sector 107, and ATS Tourmaline and Brisk Lumbini in Sector 109 were among the 22 locations where electricity returned after nearly a day. “I slept inside my car on Monday night, as our society has no backup facility since it is in the affordable category,” said Ranjana Mukherjee, 64, a resident of ROF Aalayas. “When I reached the parking lot, I realised I was not the only one there. Other residents were also downstairs with water bottles and other basic items to sleep inside their cars,” she added.
Residents said the outage compounded the misery of an already rain-hit city. “There could be nothing worse than a blackout amid heavy rainfall. Power outages in societies along the Dwarka Expressway in the last few months have made our lives miserable,” said Colonel (retired) Hari Bhagwan, RWA president of Oyster Grande Adani in Sector 102. “This 220kV substation in Sector 107 is the same whose control panel was reduced to ashes earlier this year. A new one is yet to be installed.”
Davinder Kumar, a resident of Imperial Gardens in Sector 102, said many residents were forced to leave their windows and doors open for fresh air. “Several opted to sleep inside their cars. However, I avoided it for several reasons,” he said. Piyush Verma, a resident of Shobha City in Sector 108, added, “The worst sufferers were those who returned home late at night after hours of struggle on city roads due to traffic and waterlogging, only to find no power supply at home. Diesel gensets kept running for hours in societies where available. Residents of affordable societies were left without backup. They kept car engines running to sleep and recharge phones.”
Officials said the blackout was triggered when the 33kV feeders of Gurgaon Greens and Country Wide, both in Sector 102, developed faults almost simultaneously around 5.30pm on Monday due to rain and waterlogging. This led to the tripping of one of the two 100 MVA transformers at the 220kV substation in Sector 107.
DHBVN executive engineer (city division) Manoj Kumar said restoration in most areas was complete by midnight, but two societies in Sector 107 remained without electricity till Wednesday evening. “The 33kVA switching station supplying power to these two societies was waterlogged. We even deployed dewatering pumps, but the water kept flooding back from neighbouring areas. Restoration could take place only after water subsides,” he said.
HVPN executive engineer Anil Malik said technical teams faced delays in reaching the substation. “Our team, which was scheduled to arrive from another part of the city, was stuck in traffic for three hours amid continuous rain and waterlogging. Repair work on the tripped transformer started late. We restored supply at the substation by 11.15pm, after which DHBVN began supply restoration for end consumers,” he said. Malik added that a spare control panel had been arranged to replace the one destroyed in a February 9 fire. “It will be made functional soon, which will ease the situation. There is no load issue at this substation at present.”