Power outages worsen woes of residents

Patna: Frequent power outages and load-shedding have compounded the woes of Patnaites, who are already battling the hot and sultry weather. Residents say that frequent power cuts being witnessed in the night hours are depriving them of sleep.
On Wednesday, the ‘marshalling box’ in power transformer caught fire because of which the electricity division was forced to shut the new power grid at Digha.The unannounced power cut owing to shutdown of the grid irked thousands of residents living in area falling under Patliputra electrical division including Boring Road, Rajiv Nagar, Patliputra Colony, north SK Puri, Kurji, Patliputra Industrial Area, some areas of Danapur and Digha.



Shriram Singh, general manager, Patna Electric Supply Undertaking (PESU), said due to fire the grid was shut, which affected the power supply in several areas. “The restoration work was completed and the grid became operational for some time. But owing to some technical issues, a problem erupted for which repair work is going on. Power load is not yet being taken from this grid right now. We have switched to the old Digha grid to ensure power supply in the affected areas,” he said. He added: “The new grid at Digha was commissioned only a month back and we did not give full load to it due to some automation issues.”
With the temperature soaring above 42 degrees Celsius, the peak power demand touched a new high of 857MW around 11 pm on Tuesday, which was all-time high in June. On Wednesday, the power demand reached 832MW at 3pm, said Singh, adding that around 30-40 MW will increase by 11pm.
Residents registering complaints regarding load shedding, break down in transformers, local faults in the fuse or circuit, short circuit and damage in transmission lines among other problems that cause power outages, have increased from 900-1,000 on an average about a week ago to 1,600-1,700 per day now.
The GM said there are 65 sections in the PESU, of which 20-25 fuse call complaints are received in each section per day. “As per the data, 22,000 complaints were received in January this year, 31,000 in February, 30,400 in March, 33,600 in April and 39,000 in May. The power demand from January to June doubled from 400 to 800MW, but the complaints have not increased that much,” Singh told TOI.
However, citizens are irked by the unscheduled and prolonged power cuts.
Saurabh Mishra, a resident of Boring Road said the power cuts in his area have increased in the last two days, making the situation worse when the ‘real feel’ temperature has soared above 50 degrees Celsius.
Anshu Chaudhary said Khasmahal, Kankarbagh area is encountering frequent power outages and low voltage, giving inconvenience to the common people. “Necessary steps should be taken to ensure uninterrupted power supply at least during night hours,” she said.
Gaurav Kumar, a resident of Mangal Talab area, said one cannot stay without a fan in this sweltering heat even for a minute. “Power cuts, especially at nights, are robbing our sleep,” he said.