PANAJI
Goa witnessed nearly one unplanned power outage every hour during the first three months of 2026, exposing persistent vulnerabilities in the state's electricity distribution network despite ongoing infrastructure upgrades worth over Rs 1,500 crore.
Data furnished by the Electricity department reveals that a total of 2,133 unplanned power outages were recorded between January and March this year, averaging about 23 disruptions every day somewhere across the state.
March, the beginning of the summer season, reported the highest number of outages at 829, followed by 702 in January and 602 in February.
Department records show that a significant number of outages were caused by blown fuses and snapping of service lines. Other disruptions were linked to faults in distribution lines, while around four per cent of outages were attributed to failures in high-tension lines. Power supply was also affected by breakdowns of underground cables, transformer failures, grid sub-station issues, voltage fluctuations and other distribution-related problems.
The outage data comes at a time when the Electricity Department is implementing a massive infrastructure modernisation programme aimed at improving reliability and ensuring uninterrupted supply, particularly during the monsoon.
Officials said projects worth more than Rs 1,500 crore are currently underway across the state. Of these, works valued at over Rs 610 crore had been completed by February this year. The completed projects include upgrades of substations, feeder improvement works and strengthening of the distribution network in several areas.
The remaining projects, involving transmission strengthening, underground cabling, construction of new substations, smart metering and system modernisation, are at various stages of execution.
Sources in the department attributed the pressure on the electricity network partly to a surge in power consumption driven by increased tourism activity and seasonal demand. Peak electricity load has reportedly risen by nearly 25 per cent.
"Upgradation of substations, feeders, new substations and underground cabling has been taken up on priority. We intend to complete these works before the monsoon. Several projects are in advanced stages, with 80 to 95 per cent of the work already completed," sources said.
