Several residential areas of Chennai went without power supply on the midnight of Monday and early hours of Tuesday due to a combination of reasons, including a fire at the Chintadripet substation.
The breakdown in the supply took place in two spells and after the second time, it took nearly two hours for the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) to begin restoration of the supply. Among the affected areas were Chindatripet, Pudupet, Sembium, Tondiarpet and parts of Anna Salai.
A release issued by the TNEB said the first breakdown happened at 11-55 p.m. on Monday following the development of a “sudden fault” in the high-tension system that affected the supply to the Chindatripet 110-KV substation. This, in turn, hit the generation of a power plant in Basin Bridge belonging to an independent power producer. By 12-30 a.m. on Tuesday, this problem was set right, it said.
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But, two hours later, the second breakdown happened due to “a major fire” in the Chindatripet substation. A senior TNEB official attributed the fire at the substation to a lorry hitting a transformer on Kalavai Chetty Street in Chindatripet. This triggered the fire at the substation, damaging 12 out of 15 circuit breakers.
The fire was brought under control by the Fire Service personnel after about two hours. Subsequently, the TNEB workers took up the work of replacing six damaged circuit breakers. This was completed at about 7-30 p.m. on Tuesday, the official added.
The Board made arrangements for restoring the supply in Chintadripet by drawing power from other areas. Besides, high tension consumers were advised to switch over to generator supply for facilitating the supply to the domestic consumers.
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The official pointed out that by Wednesday afternoon, the Chintradripet substation would resume its normal functioning.
A police complaint was lodged against the lorry owner for damaging the transformer, the TNEB official added.