Noida: Driven by soaring 40-degree temperatures and post-rain humidity that spiked electricity demand, residents across Noida and Ghaziabad endured disruptive power outages on Thursday. Power department officials attributed the disruptions to equipment overloading and overheating.Across Noida, outages impacted sectors 12, 72, 82, 105, 117, 122 and other localities during peak morning hours, which disrupted daily routines and caused damage to home appliances.B Kaur, a resident of Sector 105, complained that the electricity department failed to supply power properly despite paying bills regularly, including surcharges.Late Wednesday night, a transformer malfunction near the F-block children’s park in Sector 51 triggered a localised blackout.“A PVVNL team worked overnight to replace the transformer, restoring power by 1:30 am,” said Sanjeev Kumar, RWA general secretary for blocks C to F, who attributed the breakdown to grid overloading.While DISCOM regulations state that operating at 70% to 80% capacity is safest, unbalanced overloading remains rampant across Noida.Kumar subsequently urged residents to balance their household electrical loads by turning off multiple heavy appliances when they are not necessary.Meanwhile, neighbouring Ghaziabad faced similar power disruptions in Abhay Khand, Shipra Sun City (Gymkhana area), Indirapuram and parts of Vasundhara and Vaishali.In Siddharth Vihar’s Prateek Grand City society, power supply was disrupted around 7:45 am on Thursday. The society’s power backup DG sets failed to kick in immediately. During the hourlong outage, a delayed generator backup trapped a delivery person in a lift for 15 minutes, while some residents took the stairs to work.The capacity ramp-up of several substations across Noida sectors — including 20, 22, 58, 71 and others — is currently underway.
