NOIDA: An inspection by Noida Power Company Ltd has found that lack of power infrastructure and overloaded equipment are causing outages in three societies of Greater Noida West — Ace Aspire, Nirala Aspire and Eco Village 1.
The discom has asked the society maintenance teams to augment their infrastructure at the earliest and has handed out manuals for guidance in electrical equipment upkeep as well.
During the first phase of inspections, the NPCL team found issues such as overload, lack of adequate equipment and structural design flaws in electrical equipment placement at these three societies.
The initiative was kickstarted after a rise in complaints of outages from several highrises in the Greater Noida West, leading NPCL to set up a team to inspect electrical infrastructure at gated societies in the area. In the first phase, 14 societies were selected for the same, with five societies having undergone inspections so far.
The discom team, along with a few of the residents, completed the very first of these assessments at Eco Village 1 last week. They handed out directions to correct problem areas such as underload, as only 6 of the required 22 transformers were found at the society. The discom also identified other issues like internal structure flaws, high electrical PD discharge, faulty relay settings, unhealthy trip circuits, seepage, and the installation of transformers without clearance from the state govt’s directorate of electrical safety (DOES).
From Wednesday to Friday, the team inspected four more societies — Gaur City 7th Avenue, Panchsheel Hynish, Nirala Aspire, and Ace Aspire. Out of these, Nirala Aspire and Ace Aspire were found to have faulty or low-quality electrical equipment.
The discom highlighted issues such as faulty electric panel design and lack of clearance for electrical safety at Nirala Aspire. At Ace Aspire, issues regarding the condition of the panel and meter room, as well as leakage and seepage, were noted.
“Both the Nirala and Aspire highrises were found with deficiencies. While the design of the power structure in Nirala society was faulty as electric panels built adjacent to the wall left no space for routine maintenance thereby leading to heating, lack of space was also noted behind the 33kV switchgear. Also, the society had no DOES clearance for electrical safety,” said Sarnath Ganguly, vice president (Operations), NPCL.
Furthermore, an issue with the electric panel sound was also noted at Ace Aspire. The condition of the panel and meter room in the society was found to be unsatisfactory and leakage leading to seepage was also present.
The team also found that Ace Aspire did not have an annual maintenance contract (AMC) with benchmarked contractors for periodic preventive maintenance, which can reduced the duration of an outage during breakdown.
“The biggest reason for power cuts and tripping in Greater Noida West societies is the weak electrical infrastructure and overloaded equipment. Builders have installed panels by laying the lines incorrectly. We have sent the report to GNIDA,” Ganguly added.
The remaining societies in the first phase to be inspected by June 15 are Mahagun Mywoods, La Salora, Arihant Amber, Panchsheel Greens 2, Gaur City 11th Avenue, Sky Garden, Park Avenue, Fusion Homes, and SKA Green.
