MADURAI: Hundreds of electricity transformers in Madurai district have been damaged or have to be taken off service for repair and rectification over the last four years due to suspected overload and lack of timely maintenance of these resources by the authorities, social activists said.
According to sources, there are about 6,000 distribution transformers of different categories from 16KV to 500 KV in Madurai district. Of these, about 3,000 of them are 100 KV transformers.
According to an RTI reply sourced by an activist, about 457 transformers have underwent repair and rectification in four years from 2021 to 2024 and nearly 100 transformers of 100 KVA/KV type have been affected by HT coil winding or LT failure in the period.
Speaking to TNIE, RTI Activist NG Mohan said, "Distribution transformers would normally be installed at a capacity of 100 KVA/KV. After some time, with increase in number of connections served by the transformer, the demand will overshoot the capacity and a distribution transformer of 150 KV capacity must be installed to replace the 100 KV one. However, local EB lineman, foreman, and assistant engineers, though aware of the issue, fail to act on time. Hence, the transformers develop glitch due to overload and eventually fall into disuse."
"Sometimes, when there is power failure or maintenance work is going on in a transformer in the locality, technical personnel, in order to restore power to customers, feed power from another transformer from another area. This damages good transformers too and also the power lines. Such activities cause enormous wastage and can be deemed as mismanagement of resources," the activist said.
An official from TNEB Engineer's Association said, "Overload from the customers’ side often causes problems in distribution transformers. Local political cadres pull electric lines directly from the power lines causing depletion of load from the transformers leading to damage of the unit."
Speaking to TNIE, a top official from Tangedco (Madurai) said, "Inability to do regular maintenance is the primary reason for the problem. If there is leakage or low coolant oil, the unit could overheat and this could damage the coil and LT lines. Sometimes, overload, too, can damage the entire transformer unit."