The squall and thunderstorm of the intervening night between Tuesday and Wednesday has left the city and surrounding areas paralysed, with many localities deprived of power supply even up to Wednesday evening. The damage spread even to surrounding districts such as Mahabubnagar, and Nalgonda.
The power supply network experienced extensive breakdown since midnight owing to uprooted trees and collapsed poles at various locations. The damage was especially more in the Rangareddy North and Hyderabad North circles, which include areas such as Kukatpally, Medchal, Gachibowli, Banjara Hills, Green Lands and other such divisions.
A statement from the Southern Power Distribution Company of Telangana (TSSPDCL) said, large trees and hoardings fell on the electricity poles, conductors and transformers interrupting power supply to many areas of the city.
A total of 100 electricity poles fell down in the Rangareddy North circle itself, while the toll in the Rangareddy South and Hyderabad North together was 120 poles. In the total discom’s purview, a total of 405 poles collapsed, with Mahabubnagar sharing major portion of the damage.
A total of 12 distribution transformers conked out in the Greater Hyderabad purview, while the total for the SPDCL stood at 22.
Owing to the damage, power supply in the purview of 306 11kV feeders was affected, plunging thousands of households in darkness. An extraordinary number of 24 feeders of 33kV capacity too were affected, the cascading effect of which was carried to many more areas.
The Chairman and Managing Director of TSSPDCL G.Raghuma Reddy, through a press release on Wednesday, informed that supply to majority of the areas had been restored by evening, while work was on with regard to six feeders. More than 500 staff were on field addressing various complaints. A total of 3,000 complaints were received by the discom’s emergency call centre by Wednesday noon.
The discom has alerted people not to touch the fallen poles or live wires hanging loose from the poles, and instead call the control room or officials at given numbers (see box).
Meanwhile, the Transmission Corporation of Telangana (TSTransco) had to face a tricky situation owing to sudden fall in the electricity demand at about midnight. At 11.59 p.m. on Tuesday, the power suddenly fell from 7177 MW to 3459 MW, triggering an emergency requiring shut-down of some units of generation. However, the impending grid collapse was successfully averted thanks to the use of oil instead of coal as fuel, sources informed.
