The start of summer in Tamil Nadu puts the maintenance staff and senior officials of the electricity department in overdrive to maintain uninterrupted power supply to homes. It is essential that Tangedco start preparing for the summer, which officially starts around April and goes on till the first week of June, when power demand shoots up.
A senior official of Tangedco says that except during the COVID-19 lockdown enforced in 2020 and 2021, the power demand has been increasing every summer. This year, the peak power demand record has been broken twice, with an all-time high of 19,387 MW and 423.785 million units consumed on April 20. On April 18, Tangedco was able to meet the peak demand of 18,882 MW and consumption of 413 million units by the more than 3.30 crore consumers, the official adds.
“We have been facing frequent disruptions in power supply for the last 10 days. The supply is cut for half-an-hour to one hour. We were without power between 8 p.m. Wednesday and 3 a.m. Thursday ”K. Rajua farmer at Musiri
Whenever the peak demand is reached, big blackouts will ensue in some parts of the State and the city; but no major power disruptions were witnessed this year, even after the peak demand touched 19,387 MW, officials say.
Supply secured
Officials say they anticipated the peak demand period, and have been securing the supply of 20,000 MW from various energy sources, besides attending to long-pending distribution issues. The pre-summer maintenance work covered 19 projects, and it was modelled on the pre-monsoon preparedness work.
The senior official says the preparations for the summer included routine sub-station maintenance; replacement of damaged high- and low-tension poles; rectification of leaning poles; tightening of sagging power lines; removal of old and damaged poles and installation of new poles; replacement of weak and damaged insulators; repairs to damaged pillar boxes; replacement of aged power conductors with new ones; installation of new jumpers and switches; oiling transformers; and installation of transformers in low-voltage areas.
Tangedco had taken up a mass maintenance programme of 10.77 lakh tasks under 19 categories for strengthening the distribution network and completed more than 11 lakh tasks under the regular maintenance work in the financial year 2022-23. In addition to this, it has been taken up massive infrastructure development and upgrade throughout the State by commissioning substations of various capacities, and installing hundreds of distribution transformers for preventing low voltage and power fluctuations during the peak demand period.
The State’s transmission network is set to undergo a sea change with the commissioning of the three new 765-KV substations, including the pooling station at North Chennai. The two other 765-KV substations are being established at Ariyalur and Virudhunagar.
Some of the important projects carried out by Tangedco during the last financial year were the commissioning of 400-KV substations at Vellalaviduthi, Edayarpalayam, Ottapidaram, Samugarengapuram and Parali and 230-KV substations at 28 places. To strengthen the transmission network, Tangedco commissioned 52 extra high-tension substations at a cost of ₹1,198 crore. However, there have been complaints of power cuts and voltage fluctuations in interior parts.
In the industrial district of Coimbatore, consumers in the city, especially domestic consumers, experienced power disruptions. In some areas, disruptions happen almost every day, says a consumer. “Last week, power supply was cut for almost three hours at night,” says Dhanalakshmi, who resides at Ramanathanpuram in Coimbatore city.
Industrial users happy
Despite issues of fluctuations and power cuts, the industrial users are happy that there is no major power shortage. C. Sivakumar, president of Coimbatore Tiruppur District Tiny and Micro Enterprises Association, says industries have not faced power cuts so far this year, except maintenance shutdowns.
In Tiruchi city, there have been no major issues or complaints about power supply since the start of the summer. But power disruptions did happen for 30 minutes to 45 minutes at some places. According to officials of the Tiruchi circle, Tangedco recorded minimal complaints even during the second and third weeks of April when power consumption peaked. Tangedco, which used to enforce power shutdowns once in a month in notified areas for repairs and maintenance, did not do so in March and April this year to help students prepare for the public examinations, the official add.
The weather being pleasant in the last one week has brought down the power demand. However, farmers complain of frequent power failures in rural and interior parts. Farmers at Thottiyam and Musiri are facing a torrid time. “We have been encountering frequent disruptions in power supply for the last 10 days. The supply is cut for half-an-hour to one hour. We were without power between 8 p.m. Wednesday and 3 a.m. Thursday,” says K. Raju, a farmer at Musiri.
The consumers in Thanjavur and Tiruvarur complain of low voltage during day time. The domestic consumers in and around commercial and semi-industrial areas bore the brunt of low voltage for nearly a fortnight before the summer rain arrived. The problem was so acute that the power equipment in houses tripped frequently as the stabilisers struggled to balance the voltage needed for the gadgets to run. Social activist Gopalakrishnan of Thanjavur says that though the weather has turned cool, the summer heat will return in the coming days and the problem of low voltage will arise. To avoid the problem, air-conditioners should not be used and roof-top solar plants should be promoted.
Arulanandham of Saliyamangalam says the low voltage problem, if it persists for a few more weeks, will impact the summer crop cultivation. The farmers who depend mostly on the groundwater require consistent power supply. In Salem, Namakkal and Erode, consumers find the monthly maintenance, done a full day, a nuisance.
(With inputs from C. Jaisankar in Tiruchi, M. Sabari in Salem, M. Soundariya Preetha in Coimbatore, S.P. Saravanan in Erode and V. Venkatasubramanian in Thanjavur)
