To save winter hassles, move power cables underground

Kuldeep Chauhan

Every year, overhead electricity transmission lines in snowbound regions of Lahaul and Spiti, Kinnaur, Shimla, Chamba, parts of Mandi, Kullu and Sirmaur districts are damaged extensively due to heavy snowfall, leading to frequent and long outages. The snapped power supply makes the life of local people, particularly patients and senior citizens, miserable.

HP State Electricity Board Ltd (HPSEBL), which is responsible for the maintenance of power lines and supply in the state, suffers losses to the tune of Rs 30 crore due to snowfall every year. What to talk of the winter, even unseasonal snowfall in Lahaul and Spiti on September 22 and 24 in 2019 caused damages to the power transmission infrastructure to the tune of Rs 4.5 crore and people lived in darkness for over a month till the power lines were restored.

In such a scenario, experts say that underground power cables is a permanent solution to check power failure due to repeated extreme weather events such as snowstorms and cyclones in snowbound areas.

The story is repeated during the winter every year. Heavy snowfall on January 7 and 8 not only obstructed road connectivity in the state capital and snowbound areas in Shimla, Kinnaur, Sirmaur, Mandi, Kullu, Chamba and Lahaul and Spiti districts, but also snapped power supply and communication lines for over a week.

Patients, elderly worst sufferers

In such a situation, the worst sufferers are patients and the elderly in villages that are cut off from the tehsil and state headquarters. They need power supply and communication connectivity during medical emergencies, as lab facilities cannot work without electricity while patients suffer in hospitals due to cold, say doctors. The life gets crippled due to heavy snowfall even in Shimla as power supply snaps, what to say about remote snowbound areas, says Vijay Chauhan, a social activist.

The situation worsens as the HPSEBL does not have an adequate number of linemen and T-mates to repair the damaged lines during the winter. It has to hire labourers to restore the lines that take up to five to seven days, in some cases even two weeks, say HPSEBL engineers.

Even after a week, a big part of the Lahaul valley still remains without power as snowfall has grounded all overhead transmission lines there. The HPSEBL neither has enough linemen nor equipment to restore the snapped power lines. This makes the installation of underground cables all the more necessary, say the experts.

Shortage of field staff

The linemen and T-mates work under a lot of pressure from the HPSEBL authorities to restore the snapped power lines but neither the government nor the top-heavy board is bothered about their problems. A sufficient strength of technical field staff is necessary to ensure uninterrupted power supply but in Himachal they are underpaid and unequipped.

The HPSEBL provides no TA/DA, equipment and winter gear to the field staff and there had been cases when they got hurt after falling from slippery poles or getting electric shocks while repairing faults. According to a rough estimate, the HPSEBL needs over 1,000 linemen and T-mates to keep the power lines running in the state. The board claims that they recruited over 300 personnel last year.

Viable solution

Underground power cables is the only lasting solution to the problem in the snowbound areas, says Bharat S Rajpurohit, associate professor, School of Computing and Electrical Engineering, IIT, Mandi.

Though it will cost more, yet underground power lines should replace the overhead 11 KV and 33 KV electricity lines, says Rajpurohit. “Now, technology is available for laying power cables underground in snowbound areas and cities with high-density population. We can easily check all faults in underground cables, a big advantage over overhead power lines,” he says.

300 linemen recruited

JP Kalta, Managing Director, HPSEBL, says, “We have recruited about 300 linemen. A huge region becomes snowbound during the winter and underground cables are costly”.