Gurgaon: The city, under a heatwave alert until May 26, sizzled on Tuesday as the maximum temperature soared 3.4 degrees above normal to touch 44°C. The spike came with power outages across the city, some lasting for hours as substations developed faults.Gurgaon has 1,261 substations of 11kV, of which 168 reported 113 tripping incidents on Tuesday, with an average duration of two minutes. There were also 15 breakdowns, each over two hours on average. Most breakdowns were attributed to damaged cables and broken conductors triggered by intense heat. The city’s 86 substations of 33kV reported no tripping, but one major breakdown was recorded at the Sector 95 substation, where a faulty switch caused an outage of nearly two hours.Across Haryana, of 6,740 substations of 11kV in the state, 708 feeders tripped in a single day, while 33 out of 599 substations of 33kV reported 44 tripping incidents and 15 breakdowns, with an average downtime of 1.51 hours.Residents said the outages hit hardest during the peak afternoon and night hours, when the heat was unbearable. Ruchi Mehta, a resident of Sector 50, said the power kept going off every few minutes.In Sector 48, where outages lasted longer, frustration simmered. Rajesh Anand, who works from home, said, “We had three major cuts today. One of them lasted almost an hour. With this kind of heat, it’s impossible to concentrate or even sit comfortably.”Officials noted that several long-duration outages were caused by faults in key feeders. In Gurgaon’s Circle 1, power was out for nearly six hours and in Circle 2 for about two hours. A faulty 33kV substation plunged Sector 95 into complete darkness during the night.Residents in new housing pockets, too, faced recurring interruptions. “The tripping is constant. Fans slow down, lights flicker, and then everything shuts off for a few minutes. It’s exhausting,” said Anita Sharma of Sector 92.With temperatures expected to rise further this week, the pressure on Gurgaon’s power infrastructure is likely to intensify. Officials said teams are working to replace damaged cables, repair conductors and stabilise overloaded feeders. For now, residents are hoping the outages don’t worsen.
