Chennai's power consumption touches a new high

CHENNAI: As the city's daily energy consumption touched a new high on Friday, some parts of the city, including Saidapet, Velachery, and Avadi, witnessed short-duration power outages and voltage fluctuations.

On Friday night, the residents of Saidapet resorted to a road blockade on Anna Salai over frequent power outages. As the power went out frequently, the irate residents blocked the arterial road at midnight to express their anger. Residents of Velachery and Avadi also complained of power outages on social media.

According to Tangedco officials, the heatwave has fuelled the State's peak power demand to a new high of 20,830 MW on Friday, bettering the previous high of 20,701 recorded on April 30.

Even Chennai city's energy consumption has touched a new high of 95.93 million units on Friday, higher than the record of 93.70 MU on April 30.

Officials attributed the power outages in some parts to local issues. "Due to increased AC usage at homes, the distribution transformers could get tripped owing to overload. In such places, the transformer capacity should be increased in the future," the official noted.