CHENNAI: After majority of Chennai city witnessed a rare power shutdown for around four to five hours on Thursday night, Tangedco on Friday clarified it was a fire incident in Alamathi substation in Tiruvallur district that triggered the outage and not a fire in Manali substation as it was originally communicated on Thursday.
According to a Tangedco release, the Manali substation (400/230 KV) is a key power hub supplying electricity to large parts of Chennai. Typically, the Alamathi substation (400 KV) and the North Chennai Thermal Power Station II (NCTPS) are the primary power sources for the Manali substation, which in turn supplies 800 to 900 MW to major substations in Chennai, including Pulianthope, Tondiarpet, Mylapore, RA Puram, Basin Bridge, Vyasarpady and Sembiyam.
Tangedco said although both the NCTPS and Alamathi substations were functioning alright, the fire that broke out at 9.58 pm was quickly extinguished, but the failure of both power sources led to outages in areas including Mylapore, Santhome, Nungambakkam, Royapuram, Tondiarpet, Kolathur, Madhavaram, and Red Hills, among others.
The power utility added while immediate steps were taken to provide alternative power supply during the outage, some technical issues occurred at Tondiarpet, Kalivendampattu, and Taramani substations during the restoration work, causing some delays.
However, efforts were accelerated and by 12 am, and power was restored in Anna Salai, Nungambakkam, Periyar Nagar, and surrounding areas. Full restoration was achieved by around 2 am, claimed Chennai corporation.
Tangedco also confirmed essential services, including hospitals, remained unaffected throughout the power outage.
Many people complained they could not reach the Minnagam call centre of Tangedco to report the issues last night and they were receiving a message that service was not available.
However, an official said Minnagam centre, equipped to handle 60 calls at a time, faced a huge surge in calls after supply was disrupted to 10 lakh households, resulting in many not able to reach the centre. The official said the call centre was operational throughout the night.