Irregular power cuts irk Hyderabadis

Citizens express annoyance at being caught off-guard with sudden outages

Hyderabad: For the past two weeks, city dwellers have been grappling with irregular power cuts. On some occasions it would come back within minutes, other times the agony gets stretched for hours. Moreover, the uncertainty around the timing of power cuts is catching citizens off-guard.

With such being the state of power supply in parts of Hyderabad, denizens are pushed to fish out battery lights, candles, and inverters from attics and storage cupboards.

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While Tuesday’s heavy rain caused widespread power outages across the city, many complain of power cuts even before and after the rains. As the thunderstorm alert was passed days ago, TSSPDCL’s unpreparedness irked citizens. This is quite apparent on the social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter).

“For the past few days, we are having power cuts. Sometimes it’s in the afternoon. Are those appropriate times to cut off electricity?” asked a user.

Similar annoyance is conveyed by residents across the city including those from Meerpet, Saroornagar, Doodh Bowli, Manikonda, and Sainikpuri.

Divya Swaraj, a corporate employee working in Gachibowli, recalls her sleep-deprived mornings due to power outages. “I work eight hours a day apart from long travel to workplace from Meerpet. This leaves me tired, and on top of that when there is a power cut early morning, I am not able to fulfil my sleep quota,” she laments.

The reasons for disruption in power supply seem to vary from area to area. For Padmarao Nagar, a control room official said that the “area’s PTR is overloaded”, and assured that the issue would be resolved within a week.

While the official for South Zone declined to give details about a specific area, they said, “We are getting a lot of complaints about power cuts and we are busy handling them now.” Officials of other control rooms claimed there were no outages in their respective circles.

“There is no timing for power cut. Morning, afternoon, night — we just don’t know when. For the past 10-15 days this is happening, at least twice a day.”
– Veena, resident of Bagh Ameer

“On Tuesday there was a power cut for a long time. After that, around 4 am there was an outage and then it just kept coming and going for more than an hour.”
– Dheeraj, resident of Kachiguda

Twitterati lament over outages

“Does the unpreparedness of your local municipal body remind you of the state of third-worldliness of India, too? #Hyderabad #HyderabadRains #ghmc #tsspdcl(sic).”

“@tsspdcl @CGMRRZTSSPDCL @TelanganaCMO what is it with day time power cuts in Hyderabad City – Kapra area? Are back to 90s? (sic)”

“Is there any surprise plan of power outage like yesterday night which was for 4 hours from 10:30 PM to 02:30 AM Please let us know if there is any plan I can’t trust you anymore(sic).”

“No power from last 4 hours. Raised complaint.. but still facing issue. High temparatures, kids are crying… still you take hours to restore. We’ve been trying to connect local tsspdcl staff, but no response(sic).”

There is infinite power supply: Chairman & MD, TSSPDCL

TSSPDCL Chairman and MD Musharraf Ali Faruqui asserted that there is an infinite power supply and that “there is no power interruption anywhere in the city”.

On morning power cuts, he said, “Domestic demand has come down in the early morning and the load patterns have shifted, with more demand in the afternoon.” Around 300 teams are currently deployed and working round the clock, he said.

“22,000 people work hard to give uninterrupted power supply. The job of a lineman is risky and it is unfair to say there are power disruptions,” he added.