Power supply to be cut if wind speed exceeds limits: Senthilbalaji

CHENNAI: Electricity Minister V Senthilbalaji on Friday said that power supply would be stopped for precautionary safety measures during the cyclone Mandous landfall considering the wind speed by the local officials.

"We have given instructions to the officials to cut the power supply as a safety measure during the cyclone landfall if the wind speed goes up," he told reporters after a review meeting chaired by him at Tangedco headquarters to take stock of preparation for the cyclone landfall.

A senior Tangedco official said that most of the city would not face any power outage due to the underground power distribution. The city outskirts and those along the ECR which have overhead cables could face outage if the wind speed exceeds dangerous levels, the official added.

"Since the cyclone has weakened, we hope there won't be much damage to the electricity distribution infrastructure. Hope the wind speeds of Cyclone Mandous did not touch the levels of Cyclone Vardah in 2016," the official noted.

Senthilbalaji said that to restore power supply at the fast pace in case of damages caused by the cyclonic winds, they have formed special teams headed by 176 executive engineers in all the 44 electricity distribution circles comprising 11,000 members. "We have formed teams with 200 members each in places where there is no rain. They will be deployed in areas which witness damages, " he said.

In Chennai, he said that 1,100 workers are kept ready to restore power supply if any damages are caused by the cyclone.

He said that the Tangedco has enough storage of materials like two lakh poles, 12,100 km conductors and 15,000 transformers.