Wednesday outage, an indication of upcoming crisis

Enquiries with the department officials revealed that various factors caused the blackout on Wednesday night. A senior official said, “Chennai is experiencing a situation now which we anticipated only in midMay. Though the Tondiarpet unit tripping was the immediate cause, the excessive use of air conditioners is another major reason for the unexpected outage.” 

The official added that one consumer durable dealer in Egmore alone sells more than 60,000 AC units a year, which account for a total consumption of up to 5 MW. “This is because most houses are opting for the second and third AC units due to the increased purchasing power. This has resulted in Chennai alone using up nearly 3,000 MW” he said.

Further, the Ennore thermal unit was being decommissioned to be replaced with a new unit. But one unit of the North Chennai Thermal Power Station (NCTPS) 3 X 210 MW I stage and another unit in NCTPS II stage 2 X 600 MW units became non-functional due to technical glitches. “They are expected to be set right before Friday,” officials added.

Another serious issue, according to officials, who spoke to DTNext, was the gas from the numerous chemical units in north Chennai evaporating and affecting insulators on pylons, causing an unscheduled outage.

Many areas in north and central Chennai plunged into darkness for more than 6 hours leaving residents fuming after the Tondiarpet 230 KV unit of the North Chennai Thermal power plant tripped around 8 pm on Wednesday night.

Lack of proper response irritated residents who marched to the electricity office on Tiruvottiyur High Road around midnight, blocking the traffic. 

Officials placated and sent them back assuring that power would be restored in two hours. 

However, in Vyasarpadi, the residents blocked the Kolkata National Highway for more than two hours as the officials’ assurance was not kept. MKB Nagar inspector held talks and convinced the residents to disperse from the spot. 

Power support from Vallur Thermal Unit was lost as the Union government’s POSOCO (Power System Operation Corporation) disconnected the joint venture from the state grid due to pendency of arrears amounting to Rs 1,366.46 crore. 

An official said “This was unexpected as TANGEDCO was in talks with POSOCO over money due to the former from the latter. We expect the issue to be sorted out shortly since talks are on,” he added.