NEW DELHI: Delhi residents are reeling under an intense spell of heat, with the Capital recording a heatwave for a second consecutive day on Wednesday, with temperatures hovering around the 45 degrees Celsius mark. The weather office is maintaining an orange alert for the coming days amid forecasts of prolonged heatwave conditions.
The scorching heat, sleepless nights and sudden electricity cuts have added to the plight of residents across the city. Amid rising electricity demand across Delhi–NCR, residents from multiple localities have complained of frequent and unpredictable power cuts.
Several people pointed out that not every household can afford inverters or backup systems, leaving families to sit through hours without fans, coolers or air conditioners.
Radha Damai, a resident of Vikaspuri, lamented, “A power cut happened while I was teaching my daughter and preparing lunch for the family. Her studies got disrupted, and I could not cook properly because we use an electric stove. We cannot afford an inverter, the electricity remained unavailable for a long time.”
Residents also complained that there is no fixed timing for the outages, making it difficult to plan their daily routines. “Power cuts have become extremely frustrating, especially during this heat. Last night, electricity ran out around 11 pm and was only restored around 2.30 am.
Even a few hours without power feels unbearable,” expressed Nidhi Bagga, a resident of Dwarka. Many residents even took to social media platforms on Wednesday to complain about untimely blackouts. Similar complaints were reported by people residing in Noida and Gurugram.
Highlighting the residents’ concerns, former Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, “In the severe 45-degree heat, power cuts are taking place across Delhi. Delhiites are distressed.
Electricity is going off anytime.” He also took potshots at the ruling BJP, adding, “Social media is flooded with complaints, but the BJP government is sleeping. During our government, power cuts in Delhi had almost ended. Inverters had stopped selling. The BJP pushed Delhi back by 15 years as soon as it came to power.”
Power department employees, however, linked the outages to the ongoing heatwave and the unusually high electricity demand across the city. Vinod Pal, a lineman with BSES, said the excessive load on transformers and local supply systems during peak hours sometimes forces temporary cuts to avoid larger technical failures.
“Temporary cuts become necessary to prevent air conditioners and other appliances from getting damaged because the load becomes too high during such heat,” he explained. Another senior official from BSES however denied that any such power cuts were being witnessed in the Capital.
Mahesh Palawat of Skymet Weather said night temperatures have remained high over the last few days due to intense daytime heating.
Rising temp
Safdarjung, the city’s base weather monitoring station, records a max temperature of 44.5 degrees Celsius
Palam logs 44.9 degrees Celsius, 3.6 notches above normal with a 24-hour decline of 0.2 degree
Lodhi Road station recorded a maximum temperature of 44.6 degrees Celsius, 5.6 notches above normal
An orange alert issued for Thursday, with minimum temperature likely at 28 degrees Celsius and maximum touching 46 degrees Celsius