New Delhi: Even local faults in one phase of the electricity distribution network often lead to blackouts across an entire neighbourhood, affecting all phases and thousands of consumers. However, this situation has changed in parts of the city due to the introduction of hotline maintenance — an advanced live-line repair practice being adopted in the city.Under the system, specialised hotline maintenance vehicles and trained technicians are used to repair faults on live 11 kV electricity lines without shutting power supply to the area. This kind of maintenance was first launched in Shalimar Bagh, and a vehicle is now deployed across North and North West Delhi.An official from Tata Power-DDL, a power distribution company supplying electricity to North and Northwest Delhi, said that between March and April, the initiative helped save approximately 35,700 affected consumer hours.Hotline maintenance is an advanced power distribution technique in which a range of repair and maintenance work, such as replacement of damaged insulators and conductors, repair of jumper connections and loose fittings, maintenance of electrical hardware, tree pruning near power lines, are carried out on live electricity lines without shutting down the power supply.Chief minister Rekha Gupta in Sept 2025 launched the hotline maintenance services .“We isolate and fix faults while keeping the network operational. It has significantly improved network reliability and uptime by minimising outage frequency and duration,” said the official.The hotline maintenance vehicle is equipped with an insulated aerial boom for safe access to overhead lines while maintaining electrical isolation, a non-conductive fiberglass bucket to ensure technician safety during live-line operations, hydraulic controls for smooth and precise positioning, and onboard storage for insulated tools and personal protective equipment. “We are focused on strengthening and expanding hotline maintenance capabilities across the 11 kV and below network. In the future, hotline maintenance may be extended to higher voltage levels based on the outcomes and experience gained from the current operations,” said the official.
