Chennai: With cyclonic wind speed crossing 150 km per hour, the Chennai city and adjoining districts witnessed a total power outage with critical source 230 kV substations getting tripped following problems in transmission lines, said electricity minister P. Thangamani on Monday. However, the minister assured that the power supply would be restored in the city by tonight while the Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram would get supply only by Tuesday evening due to extensive damage to poles and transformers.
Speaking to reporters after reviewing the power situation following Cyclone Vardah at Tangedco headquarters, he said that the city witnessed outage after the 230 kV source substation at North Chennai, Tondiarpet, Mylapore, Taramani and Manali got tripped. As many as over 30 substations of 33 kV class also got repaired in the cyclone Vardah that landed near Pulicat in Tiruvallur district causing extensive damages in the coastal districts.
As of now, he said that they had got information that over 3,400 poles were damaged in the cyclonic winds. “We have got adequate stock of poles and manpower to replace the damaged ones,” he said, adding that the Tangedco has mobilised 2,000 workers from various districts to attend to power restoration work in the three districts as a precautionary measure in the wake of the cyclone warning. “On a war footing, we will take up the power restoration work once the intensity of the wind reduces and the rain stops,” the minister said, pointing out that already the utility’s chairman along with other officials was working overnight to ensure speedy restoration of power supply.
Mr Thangamani said that TNEB workers were also engaged in removing the tree branches that fell on the electricity lines along with fire service personnel and Corporation workers. He appealed to the people to make use of other sources of power including generators until the restoration of power supply. “We have asked the essential service providers including hospitals and telephone towers to keep generators on standby,” said Tangedco CMD Dr M. Saikumar.
A senior Tangedco official said with the city and two adjoining districts witnessing power outage, the North Chennai Thermal Power Station stage I and II and Vallur Thermal Power Station were shut down due to less demand. “We are working on lighting up the North Chennai station to commence generation,” the senior official said.
