Unscheduled outage has marked the city’s power supply for the last one week, thanks to the soaring temperatures resulting in breakdowns at many levels. Residents of many areas across the city are going through a harrowing time due to unannounced shutdown and inaccessibility of the officials.
On Thursday evening, power supply was hit at many places between Nallakunta and Uppal and Hayatnagar. In many localities, consumers spent dark and torrid hours between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., and at some other places, it extended beyond midnight.
Officials from TSSPDCL said that there was a major technical glitch at the Ghanpur substation, affecting a number of 33/11 kV substations dependent on it. Alternativ
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e supply was given to areas within the Metro Zone, but those coming under the Ranga Reddy zone were left in the dark. This is the second such instance in a week after the recent breakdown of 220 kV Gunrock substation, which affected power supply to many localities in the city for hours.
Sporadic power cuts of an hour or beyond in the daytime have become a routine for many consumers, though the city is, for the first time in seven to eight years, spared of the scheduled load reliefs. Complaints have poured in from BHEL, RTC Crossroads, Secunderabad, Marredpally, Kothapet, Chilkalguda, Jawaharnagar, Sainikpuri, Amberpet, Ashok Nagar, Khairatabad, Kukatpally, and other areas over the week.
“More than power cuts, it is the lack of response from the staff which irked us. We tried calling the local call centre and the centralised one too, a few days ago when we had prolonged outage. While the local numbers were either constantly engaged or disconnected, the centralised emergency number was repeatedly cut after two rings,” complained D. Bhaskar Reddy, another consumer from Hanuman Nagar of Dilsukhnagar.
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Field officials from TSSPDCL said that at a few places, lines are given power cuts for pre-monsoon maintenance works, while at others, technical glitches marred the supply.
CMD of TSTransco D. Prabhakar Rao, through a press release on Friday, attributed the interruptions to soaring temperatures resulting in technical problems in substations.