Hyderabad: Consumers in the city have been hard hit not only due to erratic power supply, but also due to lower capacity to withstand heavy loads. Many houses and apartments do not have three-phase connections, resulting in damage to electrical appliances like refrigerators, televisions and computers.
Normally, a household is given a single-phase connection and upon specific request, it is upgraded to a three-phase connection. Since most middle-class households have high power consuming appliances, they prefer three-phase connections.
As far as apartments are concerned, they are usually given separate transformers with a provision of supplying three-phase power to all the flats.
However, the city’s power supply wings haven’t been able to provide three-phase power to all residential areas due to several reasons — locational disadvantages, non-availability of space for sub-stations etc.
“We have the power and expertise. But in some localities, while the supply is on one side of the street, the residents who need it are on the opposite side. We can’t get the cable to that side due to curves, local opposition etc. We need to set up at least 65 more substations in the city but we cannot find the space. All these things come in the way,” a senior official of Metro Zone explained.
“For a middle-class household with two air-conditioners, one water heater, a grinder, fridge, washing machine etc., a three-phase supply is needed. We don’t have that and we have made several requests but to no avail,” said Vikas Shiny, a resident of Kukatpally.
“Three phases are supplied to the transformers that take them to the panel boards in an apartment. Since there are transmission losses, step up transformers are necessary and we make it mandatory to provide one for all G+3 structures,” a divisional engineer informed.
