Substation current transformer explosion causes citywide blackout in Gurgaon
May 2026Published 7 Sept 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor
- Where
- Sector 72 substation in Gurgaon
- What
- 220 kV current transformer fault led to explosion and fire
- Cause
- Under investigation
- Outcome
- Both 220 kV circuits restored by late night
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Companies named in the reporting of this entry (being named is not a finding of fault): Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam, Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam
What happened
A 220 kV current transformer at the Sector 72 substation in Gurgaon developed a fault at around 7.50pm on 22 May 2026. The malfunction caused an explosion and fire before the protective breaker could trip, leading to the shutdown of both circuits feeding several residential and commercial zones. The failure triggered a cascading impact across connected substations, cutting power to sectors including 38, 44, 46, 56, 52 and 15, leaving nearly half the city without electricity for hours.
The outage also halted Rapid Metro operations. Teams from Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited (HVPNL) and Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) worked through the night and restored both 220 kV circuits by late night. The operator has since suspended three junior engineers responsible for the substation pending a technical investigation into whether negligence, inadequate maintenance or equipment failure caused the incident.
Contributing factors
The power utility indicated that extreme heat and rising electricity demand may have caused thermal stress on the current transformer. A detailed technical investigation is underway to determine whether negligence or inadequate preventive maintenance also contributed. Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam attributed the failure to thermal heating, which caused an oil leak in the current transformer during a period of extreme heat and record electricity demand, and the transformer exploded before operators could trip the breaker to isolate the fault. The resulting cascade affected at least eight substations across the city.
Lessons learned
- Current transformers can develop oil leaks from thermal stress during extreme heat and peak demand, so operators should increase thermal monitoring and load checks on such units.
- A current transformer fault can escalate to explosion before the breaker trips, so operators must verify protective relay settings and breaker response times on high voltage assets.
- A substation fault can cascade across multiple connected sites, so network operators should review segmentation and redundancy to limit outage scope.
More lessons on weather and external hazards, electrical protection and isolation, outages, backup supply and restoration, from every incident on the register.
Not yet known
- Exact cause of the current transformer failure
- Model and age of the current transformer
- Cost of the damage and outage
- Duration of the metro service disruption
This entry is updated when these are reported. Get an alert for the next one like it.
Published 2026-09-07. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.
