Not just common man, power cuts hit minister, VCK leader Thirumavalavan

CHENNAI: In a major embarrassment for the State government, which is already facing severe criticisms over repeated outages, power cut interrupted events attended by Revenue Minister KA Sengottaiyan and VCK president and Lok Sabha member Thol Thirumavalavan on Monday and Sunday.

The issue is continuing to dog the government, despite its claim that the shortage had been resolved after procuring an additional 2,000 MW from Friday evening.

Power went off while Minister Sengottaiyan was speaking to reporters at the Circuit House in Vellore around 11 am on Monday. For a brief while, the journalists had to use camera lights and mobile phone torches to record the interaction.

TNPDCL said a fuse in the transformer at the Circuit House had failed when the minister was visiting. PWD personnel immediately shifted the premises to an alternate supply, it said.

A day earlier, a similar interruption occurred during a function attended by Thirumavalavan at Veeramahendrakottai camp in Tiruchendur, where he inaugurated an Ambedkar Reading Room and Irattamalai Srinivasan Hall and distributed prizes to high-scoring Class 10 and 12 students. The programme was briefly conducted under mobile phone lights.

According to TNPDCL’s daily power outage abstract report issued on Monday morning, outages were recorded at 62 locations, lasting from 14 minutes to 7 hours. This was higher than the previous day, when outages were reported at 56 locations, with the duration ranging from 10 minutes to 5 hours.

TNPDCL said the Tiruchendur outage occurred at 10.53 pm after a "passing fault" in the 11-kV Town feeder at the Tiruchendur substation. The feeder was recharged at 10.55 pm and supply was restored within two minutes, it said.

The incidents came amid complaints of unannounced power cuts and protests in different parts of the State, despite Electricity Minister R Nirmalkumar’s claim that the problem had been resolved as of Friday evening.

A senior TNPDCL official blamed it on the prolonged summer that is continuing to strain the distribution network. "Power demand has gone up due to increased use of air conditioners. Farmers are also depending on pumpsets for irrigation because of the poor monsoon," he said.

The State’s daily energy consumption touched 404 million units (MU) on Sunday, an unusually high level, the official said. Even in August, the State’s Sunday consumption remained below the 400 MU mark, highlighting the sharp increase in demand.