Long spells of power cuts were reported from several parts of the city on Sunday night and Monday morning and people’s frustrations poured out on streets in many places.
Many Kolkatans complained of extreme inconvenience in terrible heat and long delays in restoring supply by CESC.
A power cut in south Kolkata’s Jadavpur prompted a section of people to hurl stones at a CESC office, not far from the 8B bus stand, on Sunday night. Police had to intervene in some locations and placed pickets at two CESC distribution centres — in Taratala and Narkeldanga.
Pockets of Beleghata have been facing frequent power outages since Saturday night, residents said. One such spell started at 11.30pm on Saturday and continued for around four-and-a-half hours. The supply was again disrupted on Sunday night.
Many in the locality told The Telegraph they had not been able to switch on their water pumps because of voltage fluctuations and power outages.
“It is extremely difficult to work from home with such frequent power cuts. The heat is unbearable. Just think how terrible it is for elderly people,” said Rintu Dutta, a software engineer and resident of Beleghata.
“The current spells of power cuts started on Saturday night. Even now as I am speaking, my neighbourhood is without power.”
Abhijit Bose, a resident of West Rabindranagar in South Dum Dum, said there was a power outage in his neighbourhood on Sunday night. The supply was restored around 3am on Monday.
Many took to social media to reach out to the utility or vent their anger.
The police said they had “alerted” all units and deployed cops at two distribution centres of CESC to avert any law and order problems.
Debasish Banerjee, managing director (distribution), CESC, said the main reason behind these power outages was excessive use of electrical appliances beyond the sanctioned load.
“The unprecedented rise in temperature has resulted in the increase of discomfort level, which has prompted many to use more ACs. This unprecedented use of appliances beyond the sanctioned load is causing power trips,” Banerjee said.
He appealed to all CESC consumers to make “judicious” use of electrical appliances to prevent such outages. He said the “peak demand” in CESC area soared to 2,366MW on Monday, the highest this season.
The highest last year was 2,339MW, recorded on April 28. In 2021, the peak demand was 2,012MW, recorded on April 28.
CESC officials said the majority of the consumers whose power consumption had increased because of the use of additional ACs did not inform the utility or take an extension of their sanctioned power load.
“In March 2022, we had received 4,892 applications for load extension. In March this year, there were 3,917 applications,” said a CESC official.
Asked about the alleged delays in responding to the power crisis, the official said: “We have increased the number of responding teams in the last few days.”
