Overview
- Cities across India reported widespread power cuts as record May heat raised air‑conditioning use and overloaded local feeders, with outlets and traders in Kanpur reporting higher diesel bills for generator backup.
- Officials and utilities are directing consumers to the national complaint line 1912 while also publishing area‑wise numbers and WhatsApp, missed‑call and app channels for faster registration and tracking of outages.
- In Lucknow the outages caused water‑supply interruptions when pump motors failed during voltage drops and discoms advised residents to use 1912, local toll‑free lines and municipal control rooms for water complaints.
- Uttar Pradesh authorities said they will revamp the 1912 helpline to turn it from a registration service into a monitored, outcome‑oriented system after large daily complaint volumes overwhelmed staff.
- Longer term pressures include ageing transformers and feeder limits made worse by seasonal El Niño‑linked heat, which raises the risk of repeated summer outages unless grids are upgraded and load is managed.