Power goes off at TVK EB Minister's event; he claims generator glitch, TNPDCL admits feeder fault

CHENNAI: A power outage that disrupted Electricity and Law Minister R Nirmalkumar’s event at Government Law College, Madurai on Saturday (September 26) drew conflicting explanations, with the minister attributing the brief interruption to a switch between generators while TNPDCL blamed a fault in a 110 KV transmission feeder.

The interruption occurred while a Madras High Court judge was addressing the gathering at the graduation ceremony, causing a brief commotion at the venue.

Nirmalkumar said the venue was being powered by generators and that the power supply was interrupted for about five seconds while switching from one generator to another.

However, TNPDCL, in a post on X, said the 110 KV Alagarkoil-Pasumalai feeder at the Ottakadai substation had developed a fault around 11.22am following a jumper cut.

Repair work was under way and supply would be restored in about two hours, it said.

The incident comes amid reports of power interruptions at events attended by ministers at different locations in the state over the past two weeks.