Darkness at noon

The aim of Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Company (TANGEDCO) to restore power supply to a city blacked out by Cyclone Vardah by Tuesday evening came a cropper as only 40 per cent of Greater Chennai Corporation limits could be energised, officials said. 

The lucky areas included Beasant Nagar, Royapettah, KK Nagar, Kottururam, Koyambedu and Tiruvanmiyur while the remaining parts of the city remained in the dark. However, the complaint of locals from these neighbourhoods was that within an area, some streets received power supply, while others suffered. S Gangadaran of Vadapalani said “While houses on one side of the street had power, the opposite side was dark.” Similarly, H Ganesh of the same area said, “Some houses had power while others did not in some streets.” 

When contacted, Tangedco officials said, “We experienced problems as transformers’ input and output could not be matched. Also, we had to be careful as any untoward action could have resulted in problems for staff working in the field.” 

Meanwhile, Tangedco’s stating that suburban areas would have their power restored only after three days has irked residents who are fuming at what they view as discrimination. 

EB officials however claimed it was all about logic. “Where we have underground lines, restoration can be immediate, whereas areas covered by overhead lines which were the most affected as lines were broken by trees and branches falling on them will take time. In areas where poles have been damaged, it would take slightly longer as pole replacement is not an easy task.”

Even as irked residents questioned Tangedco’s slack attitude in restoring power, Electricity Minister P Thangamani said, “A total of 9,000 staff including 3,000 from other districts have been pressed into service, to ensure speedy repair of 10,000 poles and 40 transformers (up from 3,000 poles and 30 transformers which he had claimed earlier) which have been affected.” He said that power supply would be restored quickly as trees which fell on junction boxes and transformers have been removed. 

Stating that water supply to the public should not be affected, he said generators would be used to ensure uninterrupted supply. 

Meanwhile, TN’s peak power demand on Wednesday was 9,754 MW as against more than 11,000 MW prior to Vardah. Power consumption was 200.630 million units (MU). Output from thermal, hydro and gas power centres was 2,425 MW, 807 MW and 244 MW respectively, with additional inputs from wheeling (299 MW), solar (142 MW), wind (11 MW) and another 2,454 MW from Neyveli’s II expanded unit.