With May getting hotter, the city touched a new high in demand for power this year. On Tuesday, the demand at a particular time recorded 3,162 mega watt (MW), the highest, testing the city’s transmission network.
The demand has been going up year after year. Last year, it was 3,101 MW on August 19, Tangedco officials said.
This year, as the demand scaled a new peak, there were power outages due to snags in transmission lines. A snag hit the 230-kilo volt feeder line in Tondiarpet late on Tuesday night. Power cuts were experienced in Teynampet, Royapettah and T. Nagar. Areas like Avadi, Pattabhiram and Nemillichery, located on the perimeter of the western parts of the city, faced frequent power disruption.
Ameer Hamsa, a resident of Eldams Road in Teynampet, said there was no power supply for over two hours forcing the family to shift to the terrace.
Three power disruptions were recorded in the past 20 days resulting in a blackout in several parts of the city, except south Chennai. On April 28, due to a fire in insulators in the feeder lines, substations in Tondiarpet and Mylapore were left without power supply. Supply was restored after more than three hours.
On May 10, snapping of high tension feeder lines to Tondiarpet substation left parts of north and central Chennai without power and on May 4 a snag in Alamathy substation forced parts of west Chennai to go without power.
A senior official of the Tangedco said the high demand of close to 3,200 MW on Tuesday caused the distribution network to heat up leading to power failures. The sudden surge in demand is testing the transmission network, he added.
Manageable limit
Till now, the demand is within the manageable limit of 3,000 MW and there was not much fluctuation in the distribution network.
The city has been experiencing power disruptions due to extreme heat, high demand and ‘Corona effect’, officials said.
In 2011, the peak demand had touched 2,375 MW in May and did not cross the 2,500-MW mark, he recalled.
