Use electricity judiciously, Delhiites told

The Delhi government Wednesday advised people in the capital, who are battling power cuts amid sweltering heat, to use electricity judiciously and avoid "any future shortage which may happen because of uncertainty of the monsoon".

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit held a meeting to review present power situation in Delhi, which was attended by power secretary and tops officials of power distribution companies (Discoms) - the BSES and the New Delhi Power Ltd (NDPL).

The capital at present receives around 3,800 MW electricity.

A power department official said, "Delhi suffered load shedding of nearly 200 MW Wednesday."

“Delhi has been facing a gap of more than 200 MW of power between availability and demand against national shortage of more than 5,000 MW due to prolonged heat wave and abnormal day-time maximum temperature and delay in arrival of the monsoon,” said an official statement here.

“This has resulted in outages and power cuts in different localities during different time durations. It is feared that this problem may continue in case heat wave conditions prevail in the coming days," the statement said.

"The citizens of Delhi are advised to avoid unnecessary use of electricity and go only for judicious use of electrical appliances to avoid any future shortage which may happen because of uncertainty of the monsoon and the consequent loss in production of power,” the statement added.

The chief minister has also asked the discoms to come out with their schedule of power cuts and adhere to it as far as possible so that consumers are not required to face uncertainty.