Bhubaneswar: Frequent power cuts here have made life miserable for residents, who are already reeling from hot and humid conditions for the past few days.

Officials of the Central Electricity Supply Utility (Cesu), however, stayed in denial mode and said there was no shortage of power.

Several areas in the city, including Rasulgarh, Nayapalli, Patia, Laxmisagar, Hansapal, Saheed Nagar, Chandrasekharpur, Khandagiri and Ghatikia, have been witnessing massive unscheduled power cuts for the past week. With allegations of Cesu not responding to calls for help, residents took to social networking sites to express their anger.

"Bhubaneswar remained the hottest place for two consecutive days this week. While the residents were feeling the heat of the sultry weather, unscheduled power cuts made life miserable. There were power cuts even in the late night hours. We have also been trying to contact Cesu officials, but they are not picking up the calls," said Rasulgarh resident Dinabandhu Sahu.

Deputy general manager (electrical), CESU, J.K. Mishra said there was no shortage of power.

"The city witnessed thunderstorms in various parts on Wednesday and uprooted several electric poles. Electric cables were also snapped at many places leading to disruption in power supply. The situation will become normal in another few days," he said.

A Cesu official claimed that excessive use of air-conditioners had increased power load and this also contributed to power cuts.

While the city's average daily requirement of power was 220MW, this goes up to 270MW during summer. However, humid conditions have pushed up power requirement to more than 315MW in the last few days.

Several residents also complained of drop in voltage in various areas.

"While high temperature forced us to remain indoors, frequent power cuts did not spare us as we stayed indoors. At times, the fans don't move in full speed due to low voltage. In this situation, we can only hope for the rain to hit the city," said another city resident.