Growing need for electricity, high use of electrical gadgets and equipment, and frequent load shedding seem to be creating a stress on the city’s power infrastructure.
Transformer failure is usually one per cent to two per cent. However, it has gone up to 3.6 per cent during the last one year, says A. Thangavelu, Chief Engineer of Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) here.
“There is an unpredictable overloading in the city, especially when power supply resumes after load shedding and in the evening hours,” says another official of TANGEDCO. Most of the domestic consumers have inverters and these draw power from the grid for charging, apart from the growth in load for regular needs. The power drawn goes up tremendously when the supply resumes after power cut.
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Despite the slowdown, the number of service connections increase every year in the city.
In Coimbatore and Tirupur districts, there are still a large number of applications pending for domestic and High Tension connections. Use of television and air-conditioners has also gone up.
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Mr. Thangavelu says the overloading and its impact on the transformers is an area of concern.
One of the possible solutions is to go in for more number of transformers. Three sub-stations proposed already need to be established. However, there are problems such as availability of space in the city for new transformers, problems in laying lines in some areas, etc.
“We are trying to improve the infrastructure but there are challenges in the city that are not there in rural areas,” he says.