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The JSEB substation at Uliyan in Kadma on Tuesday. Picture by Animesh Sengupta
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The swelter of a summer may still be a few weeks away, but power pangs are already here to remind the oppression that lies in store.
Residents of several city neighbourhoods like Kadma, Sonari, Mango, Parsudih, Birsanagar and Ghorabandha, which are serviced by the Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB), have been reeling from interrupted supply for the last three days.
Complaints of prolonged load-shedding are pouring in from Kadma, Sonari and Mango in particular.
“Normally, we receive more than 18 hours of power supply every day. But, for the past three days, the supply has been restricted to less than 10 hours,” said S.K. Tiwary, a resident of Renuka Apartments in Sonari.
The crisis has understandably led to water woes. “Since power supply is not uninterrupted, we are unable to pump water from wells and borings to overhead tanks,” complained Snehlata Verma, a Kadma homemaker.
In fact, residents of many apartments in Parsudih are being forced to fetch water from other localities.
JSEB officials cited a host of reasons for troubles plaguing residents.
Primarily, they attributed the crisis to the Chandil grid substation that has been shut down for repair and maintenance. Also, replacement of a 5MVA transformer at Uliyan substation in Kadma is responsible for disruption in supply in JSEB command areas.
“There is no power restriction from the central load despatch. We had to shut down the Chandil grid substation for maintenance. Supply in areas like Kadma and Sonari had to be restricted to replace a defunct transformer.
“Last month, a transformer at the Uliyan substation, which sources power to Kadma and Sonari, got burnt. The defunct transformer has been replaced with a new one sent by our headquarters,” said Sunil Kumar, a JSEB official of Jamshedpur Electricity Supply Area.
The official added that the replacement of the transformer was completed only on Tuesday and power supply was expected to become normal from late in the night.
Places like Birsanagar, Ghorabandha and Adityapur also faced power crisis for the last three days. Both residential pockets as well as large industrial areas of Adityapur were badly hit. In fact, several units could not meet their production schedule for the second consecutive day.
JSEB officials said normal supply from the Chandil grid substation was expected from Wednesday.
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