The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Unexpected thunderstorm disrupts power supply in city, suburbs

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Saturday, May 28, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Unexpected thunderstorm disrupts power supply in city, suburbs

Our Bureau

66-kv line from Kalamassery, several 11-kv lines damaged

KOCHI: : The unusually heavy thunderstorm and wind resulted in most areas of Kochi city and its suburbs going without power from Thursday midnight to Friday afternoon.

The accompanying rains came as a solace since otherwise, people would have had to put up with the excruciating heat. Power was restored in some areas during night but most places remained without power till Friday afternoon.

Those living in high-rise building had a gruelling time since they could not pump water from underground tanks in the morning. The unexpected power shut down caught them unawares.

Several 11-kv lines and the 66-kv line from Kalamassery to the city were damaged in the inclement weather. Many transformers and feeders too were damaged. By afternoon, power supply was restored in most parts of the city after repair works were carried out by mobile teams and other employees of the KSEB, said N.P. Shanmukhan, assistant executive engineer of the KSEB control room, which is attached to the Power House here.

Maintenance work

The unexpected shower and thunderstorm caught officials and workers of the KSEB by surprise.

The Meteorological Department had predicted that the regular monsoon would start only by the second week of June.

The unexpected shower may affect routine pre-monsoon maintenance work in sub-stations, transformers and power lines. As part of the work, damaged transformer units were being replaced and loose connections tightened. Branches of trees which were in contact with power lines have been cut down in most areas and lines, which were sagging too close to each other, tightened. These works will restart once power supply is restored, KSEB sources said.

The small industries are among the worst affected by the power crisis. With the exception of a few, most of them have to depend on KSEB alone, as installation of generators involved substantial capital investment. The discontinuation of subsidy on generators has affected the small industries, which are not in a position to invest substantial sums on alternative power generation.

The impact of power shutdown is of more concern to industries located in areas other than industrial estates. In the case of the latter, power could be sourced from alternative feeders.

The restriction on the power schedule could be waived to help the small industries survive the problems arising out of shutdowns.

Otherwise, erratic power supply could gradually contribute to lesser productivity and ultimately to winding up of the unit. Instead of offering revival packages, a little help at the appropriate level as in the case of power supply would go a long way in helping the small-scale sector.

After all, the small industries consume only 8 per cent of the power supply, according to representatives of small industries.

However, the power disruption did not affect the operations of the big industrial units in and around the city as most of the units have emergency standby supply facilities.

Operations at the Cochin Port Trust (CPT) were not affected owing to the power failure.

The Port has sufficient generation facility to meet an emergency-like situation and even cargo handling operations can be served by the captive facility. Requirements of the port include reefer facilities that would be required for export cargo.

Operations of other units like the Cochin Shipyard too were not affected by the power disruption.

The Shipyard is served by two feeders and the supply was not disrupted to affect the operations.

Besides, Friday's disruption was not a prolonged condition and there was no threat of the operations of the Shipyard being affected. Operations of the units at the Cochin Special Economic Zone too were not affected.

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