The region lost supply around 4 am when power lines from Rihand-Singrauli in Uttar Pradesh and Tala in Bhutan tripped. The collapse was attributed to heavy fog in UP.

Haryana and UP were severely affected by the blackout; many parts of Delhi remained powerless for more than five hours. As many as 49 lines of 400 KV tripped, including six in Delhi. Among the worst hit areas in the Capital were Najafgarh, Janakpuri, Narela and Bawana.

Delhi government officials said the outage tripped 1600-MW generation at Dadri plant and the high-capacity line from Rihand. “Supply to Bawana and Bamnauli was also affected,” Delhi Transco spokesperson Rishi Raj said. “We immediately isolated Delhi’s indigenous power plants, including Badarpur and Rajghat plants, from the Northern Grid to ensure that they don’t trip.”

This, Raj said, ensured that supply to south and central Delhi remained normal. “Unfortunately, east and west Delhi were heavily hit by the Grid collapse.”

The failure did not affect Badarpur Thermal Power Station, Rajghat Power House and IP Station — they cater primarily to south and central Delhi, and essential services such as Delhi Metro, IGI airport and water works. Supplies began getting back on track in most areas after 7.30 am, officials said, when power from Abdullapur line was available at Bawana.

The situation became normal after Dadri power station began supply around noon, officials said.

“Fortunately, it’s not height of summer, so the power crisis did not bother us so much,” Janakpuri resident Nidhi Saxena said. “But water is supplied here by motor — there was no electricity from 5 am to 11 am.

In the suburbs
Gurgaon has had next to no power since Thursday night — some residential colonies have faced a blackout for up to 11 hours. The IT city was affected by tripping of units at Panipat thermal power station, and all three units at Faridabad thermal power station.

This resulted in zero production from the Gas-Based Thermal Power Plant, too, officials said.

Naresh Kumar, a resident of Gurgaon’s Sector-10, said: “We have had barely seven hours of power in the last 24 hours. I had no electricity the whole day at my shop on Basai Road.”

A K Jain, general manager of Gurgaon Region Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), which distributes electricity to Gurgaon, said supply was partially restored around 10.45 am.

But Manoj Tyagi, a resident of Virender Vihar in Sector-56, said: “We had only two hours of electricity between 10 am and 4.30 pm. It is news to me that supply was restored by 10.45 am.”

In Noida, some residential areas were affected for a few hours in the morning and officials said supply was restored by noon.

Train services off track
Among the worst hit belts of the region were Ferozabad-Dadri and Tughlakabad-Palwal lines — there was no electricity on these lines from 3.15 am to 6.45 am, throwing train service completely off track.

“There are very few departures from New Delhi in the morning hours, so we did not face too much of a problem. Our major hurdle was the functioning of commuter trains (EMUs/local trains) and arrivals from the North Central region,” Northern Railways chief PRO Rajiv Saxena said. He said diesel locomotives were attached to most local trains and stopped movement of all goods trains. “We transferred power supply used by those carriages to passengers trains.”

Some 65 trains bore the brunt of the morning’s crisis, Saxena said, and “some trains will have to be rescheduled” to ensure traffic does not accumulate on any terminal.

Railway routes to eastern region, including Ghaziabad EMUs and other locals, were also affected. Many office-goers and commuters were stranded till well past noon.

Delhi Metro: Service not affected for more than a few minutes, as Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) draws supply through six Delhi Transco substations. “These substations are interlinked in a manner that even if there’s shortage at one location, DMRC can comfortably draw power from another substation,” an official said.