CHENNAI: Minister for Energy Resources CTR Nirmal Kumar on Saturday said seven rapid response engineering teams have been deployed across the city to monitor and immediately rectify frequent and unannounced power cuts which in some cases, he said, might be due to external influences on certain officials or individuals.
Speaking to the media, the minister said the Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Limited (TNPDCL) has reviewed the causes for the repeated outage in Chennai and other parts of the state. “From yesterday, seven rapid response engineering teams have been deployed to monitor and rectify any power-related issues. Meanwhile, senior officials, including chief engineers, inspected substations and immediately rectified technical faults. This practice will continue until the issue is resolved,” he said.
The minister said issues in many cases were caused by high voltage fluctuations, manual errors, and suspected sabotage by some individuals. “While 99% of officials are working sincerely, around 1% may be a problem. We will take action against them by tonight,” he said.
Nirmal said ageing and legacy transformers are among the major reasons for cable faults and power disruptions. Works are being taken to address power cut complaints from Tiruvallur, Kallakurichi, Coimbatore, and even Karur districts. He said there is no electricity shortage in the state. “It will take time to fully rectify, but it will be done,” he added.
H Aarun Nisha (26), a resident of Perambur, said frequent late-night power cuts has become unbearable for families with children. “A few days ago, power went off at 3 am and returned only by 6 am. My children, aged four months and two-and-a-half years, were unable to sleep. Even day before yesterday, there was a power cut from 10 pm to 11 pm, and today again, power went off at 6 am for nearly an hour,” she said.
The residents of Villivakkam, Sholinganallur, Velachery and Kolathur also complained of repeated and prolonged outage. A Villivakkam resident said power went off at 2.30am last week and was restored only by 5 am. Sathish Galley from Sholinganallur said outage lasting several hours has become frequent. He said TNPDCL must address its manpower shortage.
Speaking to TNIE, additional chief secretary and TNEB CMD J Radhakrishnan said the state has adequate power supply and is comfortably meeting daily peak demand below 20,000 MW. He clarified the present disruptions are localised interruptions caused by distribution-level and equipment-related issues, including fuse-off calls, underground cable faults, jumper cuts, and conductor snapping, transformer failures or overloads, feeder faults, weather conditions, planned maintenance works, and ageing infrastructure.
In Chennai alone, TNPDCL serves around 38.79 lakh consumers through 253 substations, over 40,798 distribution transformers, 16,582 km of underground cables, and 18,092 km of overhead lines. Of the 2,200 feeders across the city, around 57 were identified as having issues, and feeder bifurcation works were underway to resolve the issue.
On solar power projects, Nirmal said tenders worth `3,000 crore were cancelled after irregularities were detected and revalidation was being done. He also announced a fresh investors’ meet for solar projects would be held on Monday.
