‘Powerless’ residents feel the heat

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, August 18

Power supply to many parts of the city was disrupted for three to five hours in the afternoon, when the 220 kV Lalton Kalan sub-station developed a snag. 

Rendered ‘powerless’ for several hours in the afternoon, city residents were made to bear the brunt of extremely hot and humid weather conditions. 

At many busy intersections, electrically operated traffic signals also became inoperative hitting the movement of vehicular traffic.

According to officials of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), one direct line between the 220 kV Lalton Kalan and 220 kV Humbran sub-station failed around 1 pm with the result that many 66 kV sub-stations down the line, were also shut down. 

“When the fault was rectified after nearly two hours, a jumper wire of the sub-station was damaged, which further took more than an hour to repair,” the PSPCL officials said.

Residents, shopkeepers, employees in the government and private offices remained at the receiving end due to the adverse weather as feeders in many city localities were rotationally shut down to reduce the load on the transmission system. 

“The total availability of electricity was also cut by some 25 to 30 per cent at one time and approximately, one sixth of the total city feeders were affected,” said an official of the PSPCL.

PSPCL Chief Engineer/ Central Zone NPS Boparai said a little after the technical snag in the 220 kV sub-station, one of the 66-kV sub-stations also became non-operational for some time, which took some time for repair and the restoration of normal power supply was further delayed. 

“The snags in both sub-stations have been rectified and normal supply was restored at 5.30 pm,” he further said.