Hyderabad: It was a terrible Sankranti for residents of many areas in Greater Hyderabad as they had to undergo severe power cuts for hours.

Supply was cut in some places for more than four hours on Thursday. The situation was slightly better on Friday.

Officials, meanwhile, denied unofficial power cuts and said that power had gone in several places due to heavy kite flying. “We had not imposed official power cuts. The threads of kites fall on the power line, leading to tripping. It is somewhat time-consuming to remove the threads and restore supply,” said Satish Kumar, chief engineer, Metro Zone. Officials have made it clear that the power demand in summer would be higher than anticipated.

“Due to severe atmospheric changes, the summer will be hotter. If that is the case, the consumption will be more. So people in the city should be ready for four-hour power cuts, which will be imposed from mid-February. In the rest of Telangana, it could be six hours or even more,” a senior official of SPCDCL said.

The present demand in Telangana is 128 MU per day and the supply is 125 MU. By February 15, the 3 MU shortage would go up to 15 MU and by March 1, it may touch 22 MU. During peak summer, a shortage of 30 MU is expected, which means that people will have a tough March, April and May. Though officials have calculated that the situation will improve after May 20 with the onset of the monsoon, it will go downhill if the rains don’t come on time.

Discoms have already indicated to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao that it would be impossible to supply power even for six hours to the farmers, which is currently being done.

The government has pinned its hopes mainly on 800 MW of power from the Dabhol plant. Even if Dabhol power is available in the next six to seven weeks, there will not be total relief since another 20 MU per day will be required by then, an official of the Energy Department pointed out.