One rain and Bengaluru trips

Bengaluru: Even as rains brought respite to Bengalureans by bringing down mercury levels, residents across the city had to spend sleepless nights owing to long power outages.

Just a single rain was enough to take a toll on the city’s rickety power infrastructure.

Residents fume why should they be deprived of power whenever it rains? They wonder why a city that boasts of being the country’s IT capital and home to many global tech majors, plunges into darkness during a downpour. 

When contacted, energy expert and member of trade body FKCCI M.G. Prabhakar said, "In some cases citing technical reasons, Bescom officials deliberately switch off power supply when it rains. Many people would have experienced that while their homes are in the dark, the other side of the same locality has power supply."

For Bengaluru its trees are both a boon and a bane, Prabhakar said and added "Officials really do not know which tree should be planted in a city like Bengaluru. Near my residence at J.P. Nagar 2nd Phase they have planted Neolamarckia cadamba, which can reach up to 145 feet in height with broad spreading branches. Will this not affect the power lines? Don't the officials have a common sense on which trees will affect the power lines?"

He lamented that this poor knowledge coupled with unscientific trimming, concretising the tree circumference without any space for the water to seep, lead to tree falls, forcing Bescom to cut power. 

Once a branch even a twig falls on power lines, it results in short circuits, leading to power outages. The old transformers are not designed to handle it, Prabhakar said.

He observed that though replacing the old transformers with 4 or 5-star rated ones could be a costly affair, but it is worth the effort, considering the amount of revenue loss faced by Bescom and inconvenience to public.

A top Bescom official claimed they have already started working on phasing out old transformers and new ones with 5-star rating were being installed.

"We have also started work on shifting overhead cables to underground in a phased manner. This will bring down power interruptions due to tree falls and help prevent transmission losses," he added.