With an increase in load shedding duration by at least an hour, unscheduled power cuts have returned to haunt residents in Tiruchi and other central districts over the past few days.
With the day-time temperature continuing to remain high in the region, residents are reeling under the increase in the duration of power cut beyond the scheduled load shedding duration of two hours.
On Thursday, residents in several parts of the city experienced power cut for over three hours. In the metro circle covering most parts of the city the usual load shedding hours was advanced by an hour. In Thillai Nagar, Thennur and several other parts of the city the load shedding commenced from 9 a.m. instead of 10 in the morning. This apart, load shedding was resorted in half-hour spells at different times in various parts of the city and the district.
Many parts of the city experienced power cuts for about three-and-half hours on Thursday, said M.Sekaran, president, Federation of Consumer and Service Organisations. He pointed out that the city had been experiencing uninterrupted power supply till the middle of September. The increase in the load shedding hours has put residents into much hardship, he said and appealed to the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to intervene and take steps to overcome the problem.
Residents complained that sweltering heat had made the power cuts unbearable. Though the city had witnessed brief spells of rains over the past 10 days, the day-time temperature continued to hover around 36 degree Celsius, they pointed out.
When contacted, a senior officer of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) conceded that there was unscheduled power cut for about an hour and attributed it to the decline in wind power generation.
Wind power generation had come down to 500 MW from about 2,000 to 2,500 MW. However, said steps were being taken to tide over the situation, he said and affirmed that the situation would return to normalcy by October 1.
