Patna, May 24: Patna Electric Supply Undertaking (Pesu) claims to have restored the damage caused by Saturday’s squall and Monday’s thundershowers but residents are still feeling the pinch of power crunch.
At Boring Canal Road, Alpana Market, Nehru Nagar, Rajiv Nagar, Indrapuri, New Patliputra, west Patel Nagar, Kankerbagh, Rajendra Nagar and other places, power played truant for hours this morning.
Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) and Pesu claimed they have restored the 33KV and 11KV lines and repaired Khagaul I, Pesu VI, Danapur II and the Canal feeders this morning.
The state received 1,262MW from the central sector today against the scheduled 1,722MW. Its plants at Barauni and Kanti, however, generated zero power. Patna received its due of more than 400MW but even then there were reports of power cuts.
“We have restored all the 33KV lines and repair work on 11KV lines are complete. We are now focusing on strengthening the transmission and distribution system. Our officers have done a commendable job while carrying out 36 hours of restoration work after Saturday’s storm,” BSEB spokesman and director of public relations H.R. Pandey told The Telegraph.
Pandey, however, said work on 132KV Kahalgaon-Sabour transmission line, which supplies power to Bhagalpur and adjoining areas, is going on and 10MW of electricity has been taken from Deoghar in Jharkhand for smooth supply through Lakhisarai-Jamalpur transmission line for Bhagalpur.
However, a transmission tower in Khagaul, which fell down during Saturday’s squall, is yet to be restored by the Power Grid Corporation, he said.
Asked about the reason behind loadshedding in some areas despite restoration work being completed, Pesu general manager S.K.P Singh told The Telegraph: “There are complaints of specific nature such as single-phase running instead of three-phase, low voltage and transformer burning. It is not because of any problem in the 33KV or 11KV lines or grid or feeder.”
Singh said: “On Saturday, around 60-70 distribution transformers and electric poles were damaged. We have replaced the damaged ones. Today, we will replace the remaining 15-odd transformers and 10 to 15 electricity poles.”
