Cyclone Mandous: Chennai, outskirts face over 12 hrs of powercut

CHENNAI: Several areas in the city and its outskirts and adjoining districts witnessed power outages for over 12 hours due to the landfall of cyclone Mandous on Friday night.

Due to strong cyclonic winds, Tangedco switched off power supply in areas with overhead cables as a precautionary safety measure to prevent any untoward incidents.

After reviewing the impact of cyclone Mandous on distribution infrastructure, Electricity Minister V Senthilbalaji said that out of the 355 sub stations in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Villupuram and Tiruvallur districts, only 10 substations were switched off due heavy winds combined with rain. "Power supply to 622 feeders were kept off as precautionary measures to ensure safety of the public," he said.

He said that since Saturday morning, Tangedco officials are carrying out field inspections in the areas where power supply was stopped to assess damages. "If any damage was found, they would rectify and restore the power supply. We are working to restore power supply to all areas by afternoon," he said.

As far as the damages, he said that the full impact of the cyclone would be known after the complete assessment was done by the field officials.

When asked about the number of calls received at Minnagam, the 24X7 customer support centre, he said that 26,251 calls were received on Friday and 16,000 calls from midnight to till his inspection at 8 am.

Tangedco CMD Rajesh Lakhani tweeted that all the staff are continuously working from 3 am onwards. "We have restored more than 50% of the disruptions. Every minute it is becoming better. More than rains, wind, flying objects and tree branches have caused short circuiting and conductor snapping," he said.

In a tweet, Lakhani said that the state's electricity demand on Friday plunged to 6,300 MW which is the lowest since the previous low of 6,309 MW on December 13, 2016. The city's demand also crashed to 753 MW at 1 am on Saturday from 2,200 MW at 9 pm on Friday.

Replying to Tangedco CMD's tweet, consumers complained of power outages and argued that the demand was low due to power outages faced in many areas.