Sweating in the dark: Mumbai battles long power cuts amid rising heat

Severe power outages across several parts of Mumbai over the past week have left residents battling sweltering heat stalled lifts and sleepless nights even as authorities blamed ageing infrastructure rising airconditioner usage and delays in cable repair work caused by road concretisation projectsAreas such as Dadar Mahim Matunga Wadala Worli Prabhadevi Kandivali Goregaon Powai Marol and Vile Parle reported outages lasting anywhere between 30 minutes and nearly 10 hours In several buildings elevators stopped functioning forcing residents especially senior citizens to remain stranded indoors or climb multiple floors in humid conditionsThe outages came as Mumbai continued to experience hot and humid weather conditions with humidity levels hovering between 64 per cent and 70 per centAreas hit by outagesReported power cuts this weekgtgt Matunga Dadar Parsi Colony and Naigaon 8 pm Friday to nearly 6 am Saturdaygtgt Dadar Wadala Evening outages tied to transformer firegtgt Worli and Prabhadevi 34 hour outages after transformer blast last weekgtgt Kandivali and Goregaon Friday night outagesgtgt Parts of Vile Parle Overnight disruptions reportedgtgt Marol Saturday and SundayWhy are repairs taking longergtgt Cable replacement permissions delayed due to road concretisationgtgt Multiple outages across areas at the same timegtgt Repair response time increased by one to 15 hoursgtgt Damaged cables harder to access under newly concretised roadsGrowing trend Backup power at homegtgt Installing batteryoperated backup systemsgtgt Exploring diesel generatorsgtgt Adding inverter systems for lifts and fansgtgt Seeking societylevel emergency power backupPower demand vs infrastructure stressSummer peak demand Electricity loadLast year 960 MWThis year 946 MWDespite slightly lower peak demand this year officials said smaller cables are getting damaged fasterWhyOfficials suspect a sharp increase in household airconditioner usage without corresponding network upgrades ldquoHomes have installed multiple airconditioning units working around the clock We are not prepared for this added loadrdquo a Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport official told middayMain reasons citedgtgt Smaller underground cables are unable to handle the increased loadgtgt Rising use of multiple airconditioners in homesgtgt Delay in obtaining BMC permissions to dig newly concretised roadsgtgt Multiple simultaneous complaintsgtgt Shortage of manpowerResidents speakSandeep Chavan Worli residentlsquoNot everyone can afford to install power generators I live on the eighth floor of an old MHADA building While we have several lifts there is no power backup We did not have electricity for 30 minutes on Friday and several residents had to sit outside the building Many were worried about how they would climb the stairs and reach their homes if the power did not return soon Fortunately we got luckyrsquoThe owner of a dairy shop in DadarlsquoAll my merchandise got spoiled due to the overnight power outage I had paneer lassi milk and kulfi stored in the refrigerator I heard another dairy nearby borrowed a diesel generator overnight to save their goods but I could not afford that I lost up to R10000 worth of goods because they went bad I managed to take some products home and save themrsquoA resident of a housing society in WadalalsquoFortunately our society has a power backup so we could use the lift But we had to keep all the doors and windows open on Friday night hoping for a cool breeze and some respite from the heatrsquoSharon DrsquoSouza Mahim residentlsquoMy mother has hypertension issues I got concerned when she was sweating on Friday and spending the night in the heat was a nightmare I have now installed a power backup at home It takes about eight hours to recharge and can run ceiling fans and the refrigerator for up to 12 hoursrsquoWhat power authorities saidElectricity supply in Mumbai is divided between multiple providersArea SupplierColaba to Sion Matunga BESTMumbai suburbs Tata Power and Adani ElectricityA senior Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport official said the cityrsquos power infrastructure is struggling to cope with sudden load spikes