Tangedco's aim to have power restored to all parts of Greater Chennai by Monday

Chennai: Six days after Cyclone Vardah hit the city, Tangedco was about to restore power supply to the city and most parts of the outskirts except Guduvancherry, Urapakkam and Pulicat. “Works are underway day and night to restore power supply to all the affected areas. We are hoping to restore power to all the parts by Monday night,” a senior Tangedco official said.

The power supply in the city and outskirts was affected after Cyclone Vardah uprooted several high-tension towers serving power to the source substations on Monday resulting in a blackout. “We have restored power to the entire city and all the schools on priority basis,” the official said. Only areas in the outskirts like Urapakkam, Guduvancherry and Pulicat, which witnessed severe damage to the power infrastructure, were yet to get power supply, the official said, adding that works were on to restore power by Monday night in all the areas.

The devastating cyclone had damaged or uprooted over 27,000 electricity poles and over 700 transformers while damaging 15,000 km conductors. “As on Saturday, we have replaced about 13,450 poles and 350 transformers with 13,500 workers including 2,000 workers from Andhra Pradesh were working to restore the power supply in the affected areas,” the official said.

With the restoration of a high-tension tower on Saturday, the power supply to South Chennai has improved. As many as 54 HT towers uprooted or damaged in the cyclone. “We are expecting to restore two towers in Ennore area that will strengthen supply in Northern parts,” the official added. With the increased power supply, there was no rotational power cut was imposed in the areas where power supply was restored on Sunday.

After the blackout of power supply on December 12, the utility started restoring power next day. On December 14, the Chennai’s energy consumption stood at mere 15 million units as against the normal average consumption of 45 units.
It increased to 20 MUs on December 15 and 29 MUs on December 16 and it touched 31 MUs on December 17.