Ramanathapuram
The district headquarters and nearby villages plunged into darkness for the second night on Thursday after ceramic insulators in high power transmission towers ‘exploded’ resulting in snapping of power lines.
As complaints from public, shops and commercial establishments started pouring in, Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao inspected the restoration work at Kooriyur near here on Friday and ensured restoration of power supply in the evening.
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He told reporters that power supply was restored after 75 Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) personnel, including experts from Theni district were pressed into service for replacing the damaged insulators in the high transmission towers.
Though power supply was restored in the evening, the personnel have been asked to stay back and monitor the situation. Tangedco has been asked to attend to the problems and ensure uninterrupted power supply to household consumers and essential services.
He said power failure problem broke out at around 8.30 p.m. on Wednesday when transmission lines from Vazhuthur and RS Madai sub-stations snapped after the ceramic insulators in as many as five high transmission towers exploded due to accumulation of salt containing dust, leading to corrosion and in turn became power conductors.
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After working throughout Wednesday night, the Tangedco personnel replaced the damaged insulators with polymer insulators and restored power supply on Thursday morning when insulators in two other towers exploded leading to blackout for the whole of Thursday and Friday.
Senior officials, including Tangedco Chief Engineer (Operations), Executive Engineer and Superintendent Engineer worked intensively in the last two days and supervised the restoration work, he said. Kooriyur, RS Madai, Vazhthur, Periyapattinam, Devipattinam and Ragunathapuram also faced blackout in the last two days.