South Chennai suburbs sweat it out at nights due to short duration power

Chennai: Even as agni natchatram, the hottest phase of summer, ends on Saturday, residents of South Chennai suburbs are suffering from sleepless night due to short duration power cuts at night and voltage fluctuation.   

Though Tangedco was able to meet power demand this summer without imposing load shedding on consumers, power cuts at night caused by inadequate distribution network or faults or overloading has become a major cause of concern for the power utility.

The power cut and voltage fluctuation have been a major problem in tail end areas particularly in Alandur, Adambakkam, Pallavaram, Chrompet, Tambaram, Selaiyur, Guduvancherry and Urapakkam.

Residents complain that during night, the power cuts are for shorter durations but they are  frequent and thus causing much inconvenience. “With the rising temperature, the electricity situation has begun to deteriorate. Though the power supply is smooth during the day time, there is daily power cut for nearly 30 minutes after 10.30 pm and the voltage also fluctuates sharply,” said a resident of Hindu Colony, Puzhuthivakkam.

Honey Paul, a resident of Urapakkam, said that his locality has been facing power cuts both at night and day. “We did not know when the power will go off.  It has become a daily routine ordeal for us,” he said.

A cross section of the residents complains that nobody in the local Tangedco offices attends telephone calls at night. Residents say Tangedco officials give routine replies like cable fault or tripping of transformers.

However, a senior Tangedco official dismissed allegations of rampant power cuts at night. “We have improved the power distribution infrastructure including construction of new sub stations and distribution of transformers to meet the growing demand,” the official said, adding that the power cuts during night time may be due to local issues.