Showers plunge IT corridor into darkness

Hyderabad: The IT corridor plunged into darkness just before the showers started on Sunday and power was not restored in some areas till Monday afternoon. Officials were clueless about what had gone wrong till 2.30-3 am and the back-up system for the IT corridor did not help much.

A few areas only got two to three hours supply during the night as the Gachibowli, Kukatpally and Jeedimetla substations were down. Even on Monday morning there was no electricity in most areas of the IT corridor and some areas reported power cuts for more than 12 to 18 hours since Sunday evening.

The three major substations feed the entire IT corridor and the residential areas in the corridor, and the heavy rain and winds knocked out the power supply for the entire night.

“There was incoming supply failure from Gachibowli 220 KV substation up to 3 am. All substations had been affected due to the heavy winds. Many lines, transformers and feeders were also affected,” said AD of Miyapur division, Mr Sudheer Babu.

“A sudden power failure increases the operational costs for the industry but does not impact work much. As the IT industry is not power intensive, industries are able to run on back-up power. However, there is an impact on the workforce residing in the residential areas,” said the VP of a BPO.

It took more than 7 hours to repair feeders

It took seven hours for the Electricity department staff in the city to restore power supply, which had gone haywire in almost 130 feeders following strong winds and rain on Sunday.
 
“Fortunately, only 11 KV feeders were hit and all the 33 KV feeders remained intact. Had they also been hit, all the 11 KVs attached to them would have also gone,” said J. Srinivasa Reddy, director (operations) of TSSPDCL. Supply in most areas was hit due to tree branches falling on the lines. “Normally, we cut branches every three months in summer and winter and every month during the rainy season. Since there was no cutting of late, the tree branches had grown and touched the lines, causing disruption. This unseasonal rain was rather unexpected,” said G. Raghuma Reddy, CMD of TSSPDCL. Some staffers were found to be lax and the Discom officials have pulled them up. Notices were served and an emergency meeting was held.