Power shutdowns in Chennai due to delay in commissioning transmission substations
Posted on: 16/Aug/2019 9:47:52 AM
In the city of Chennai, residents face many power cuts which last for an hour also. It is brought out that though power managers for Chennai have taken credit for the fact that Chennai has been spared of prolonged power outages over the summer season, unscheduled power cuts up to one hour in many places in Chennai are routine now.
Year on year, the demand for electricity in the Chennai city has been increasing and in the month of June in 2019 peak demand of over 3600 MW was recorded. It is revealed that the power infrastructure has not matched the growth of residential construction in southern suburbs. This has often lead to unscheduled outages due to the high demand for power. In many places belonging to south Chennai there has been power disruptions and low voltage and this has led to many protests.
Information collected is the delay in commissioning transmission substations has resulted power managers to resort to periodic artificial shutdowns from 30 minutes to hour. This was according to some senior officials belonging to Tangedco. It is important to note that many substation projects were planned two years back are still under construction and few important projects struck on the drawing board.
In places such as Mambalam, Tiruvanmiyur, Velachery, Nesapakkam, Maduravoyal, Pulianthope etc 230 kilo volt and 110 KV substations were planned but they are still incomplete. It is interesting to mention here that a substation planned for a private mall located in the Velachery Main Road has not even reached the construction stage.
It was later explained by few officials that the transmission substations play an important role in easing the transmission congestion in those areas that have high demand. To provide back feeding to 230 KV substations, few projects that involved installing underground cables in places like Porur, Kalivanthapattu to Taramani, Sriperumbudur to Taramani remain incomplete still.
A contractor has been identified after global tendering and construction of GIS or Gas Insulated Substation would start and this is as far as 110 KV Velachery substation is concerned. This was as per the senior official of the utility south circle. It must be taken into account that the present 110 KV substation located at the Velachery Main Road lack provision for back feeding. A land has been identified for constructing 33 KV substation at Venkateswara Nagar.
Low voltage issues have been making the lives of the residents belonging to places like Madipakkam,Pallikaranai, Ullagaram and Puzhuthivakkam very difficult. It was later mentioned by a resident of Kubera Nagar that they have been facing this low voltage issue for many years and in the month of July there were many power disruptions. In the same manner, many power disruptions are taking place in western suburbs like Mogappair, Nolambur, Maduravoyal etc also.
