With peak power demand in Gurugram touching 2,500 megawatts, officials of Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited (HVPNL) and Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (DHBVNL) said on Saturday they have intensified efforts to prevent infrastructure failures and avoid a repeat of the citywide blackout witnessed on Friday night, which lasted around five hours.Officials said DHBVNL is carrying out feeder bifurcation and installing additional transformers across old and new Gurugram to reduce overloading and outages, while HVPNL is easing pressure on overloaded substations by shifting supply to underloaded stations.According to officials, atmospheric heat and warm nights have further strained power infrastructure, increasing the operating temperature of equipment and raising the chances of failure.Officials said this was one of the key reasons behind the explosion and fire in a current transformer at the 220kV substation in Sector 72 on Friday night, which triggered a blackout in large parts of the city and even knocked out Rapid Metro out of service forcing passengers to alight in on the midway. HVPNL officials said similar current transformer explosions were reported from at least three other substations in Haryana on Friday. A senior discom official said extreme heat this summer has sharply pushed up power demand.“Besides, we were already alert for this situation, but there’s a hidden factor which has further increased the load, which is large-scale use of induction stoves, cooker equipment and heaters by consumers for cooking at various households, which was triggered by the LPG gas supply issue,” he said.The official said Gurugram’s projected peak demand for June was estimated at 2,500 megawatts.“However, it already touched 2470 megawatts on Friday, the day when the blackout took place in the city, with the temperature yet to rise further in the next month,” he said.Officials said Gurugram’s peak load stood at 2,335 megawatts in June 2024 and 2,319 megawatts during the corresponding period last year. They added that peak demand may touch 2,550 to 2,600 megawatts this year. DHBVNL has around 8.5 lakh domestic and industrial consumers in Gurugram.Another DHBVNL official, requesting anonymity, said a large-scale household load audit was needed across Gurugram and regulations must be tightened to tackle overloading.“There is a difference between the load as per records of DHBVN and the actual load which is on the infrastructure, which is due to the large-scale property rental business in the city,” he said.“Most of the domestic households have one to two kilowatts of sanctioned load. However, houseowners have kept installed two to three sub-meters for tenants. Instead of one, five to six air conditioners or other heavy equipment is being used, which should ideally have more sanctioned load. This is one of the root causes of the overloading and outage issues,” he added.DHBVNL officials said at least 90 11kV feeders have been bifurcated in Circle-I and Circle-II, including 24 in the Manesar division and 14 in the City division covering New Palam Vihar, Sector 5, Kadipur and New Colony subdivisions. Officials said at least 1000 additional transformers have also been installed in several areas of Gurugram.Shyambir Saini, DHBVN superintendent engineer, Circle-I, said 38 feeder bifurcation works had been completed in his jurisdiction.“Besides, 620 transformers have been additionally installed by March this year to strengthen the power distribution infrastructure,” he said.HVPNL officials said fans, coolers and water sprinklers have been installed at several locations to disperse heat and ensure smooth functioning of transformers at various substations.Officials added that substations in Sector 46, Sector 43, Sector 20 and Sector 38 were overloaded, but the issue was resolved by shifting load to other substations.A senior HVPNL official said a mobile station, comprising a high-capacity transformer and supporting equipment, has been deployed at the 220kV substation in Sector 56 to manage overloading.“We have installed new power transformers at 66kV substations in Sector 2 and Sector 9,” he said.“We are already laying transmission line from the 400kV substation at Kadarpur to provide alternative power supply to the 220kV substations at Sector 52 and Sector 56 so that dependency on the 220kV substation at Sector-72, where a current transformer exploded due to overloading, is decreased and a mass outage like Friday night doesn’t take place anymore,” he said, adding the new lines will become functional in a month.Anil Malik, executive engineer, HVPNL, said the damaged current transformer at Sector 72 substation has been replaced. “It had exploded even before the circuit breaker could trip. Though the substation was made functional by 10.22pm, complete power supply in all the areas of Gurugram was restored by 1am on Saturday in a phased manner,” he said.Officials said four substations of 220kV and eight more of 66kV drawing power from the Sector 72 station were affected by the outage.Meanwhile, Vikram Singh, special energy secretary, Haryana government, held a review meeting on Friday and took stock of the situation arising from the blackout. Singh directed officials to keep stock of necessary equipment including power and current transformers in stores. “No official involved in operation or field duty should be tasked with any unnecessary work. Officials must respond to consumers’ queries on WhatsApp, social media or emails to keep them updated and to resolve their issues amid increasing load,” he said.