Date:21/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/21/stories/2008072154460300.htm

Other States - Orissa

Minister gets a taste of power cut

Staff Reporter

He addresses a meeting under candle lights

Frequent power cuts have become order of the day in the city
The OERC team has found that there has been no maintenance of equipment

BERHAMPUR: The Energy Minister of Orissa, Surya Narayan Patro has witnessed the dismal state of power supply in hometown Berhampur when he attended a public meeting, held under candle light on Saturday night.

The poor supply of electricity has been accepted by the Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC).

Mr. Patro was the chief guest at the meeting of a senior citizens’ club of the city. The power went off in the area when the Minister reached the venue. Power supply resumed for some time and it again went off.

No arrangements

As the senior citizens had not made any alternate arrangements for undisrupted power supply, finally the meeting took place with lighted candles put on the dais and the auditorium.

Frequent undeclared but long power cuts have become a major menace for citizens of Berhampur. Despite reprimand by the OERC the power distribution company, Southco is yet to take any major steps to end disruption of power supply due to low maintenance.

It may be noted that recently the OERC had remarked that the power supply in the city may totally collapse any day due to dismal maintenance by the Southco.

The interruption of power supply is quite high in Berhampur. Power supply interruption of more than 30 minutes in 11 KV feeder is also quite high. The power supply of the city runs on the makeshift work that the electricians of Andhra Pradesh had done in 1999 after the super cyclone. The super cyclone had totally disrupted power supply network of the city. It was made functional in a hurry by the team of electricity restoration workers from Andhra Pradesh.

According to electrical engineers the state of power supply remains in the same condition what it was after its restoration in a makeshift manner in 1999. Electrical expert Subash Choudhry reasoned that loose connections of phase lines lead to frequent disruption of power supply, while loose connections in neutral lines is leading to low voltage problem in most areas of the city. Added to it the coolants in transformers are not being changed regularly and loads on transformers is not being properly divided. It is leading to heating up transformers and their break down.

The OERC team after thorough investigation had also marked that the power supply equipments in the city were not maintained properly or were maintained on a patch work basis by the Southco.