Nagpur: With the summer at its peak, citizens in some parts of the Second Capital of the State are spending sleepless nights as Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) has resorted to load-shedding following breakdown of a 25 MVA transformer at Besa substation.
Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Limited (MSETCL) operates the 132 KV Besa substation, located at the junction of Inner Ring Road with Umrer Road, from where 13 lines branch out to various MSEDCL’s substations. Since the last few days, the localities in Mahal, Manewada and Besa have been troubled by frequent tripping of power supply. With citizens staging gherao at local substations, it was learnt that a 25 MVA transformer at Besa station has malfunctioned leading to overloading of power lines.
During day time, MSEDCL was managing the show by distributing the power, during night time as the demand doubles-up graded load-shedding is undertaken to avoid overload. Hence, supplying uninterrupted power supply is becoming difficult for MSEDCL as there is deficit of 18 MW. The problem is more acute in Mahal Division and despite trying hard they could not avoid load shedding.
On Monday, senior officials of MSEDCL including Suhas Rangari, Regional Director, Nagpur Region, Chief Engineer Dilip Dodke visited the site and took stock of the replacement work. Apologising to citizens for the inconvenience, MSEDCL has sought co-operation from the consumers in this time of trouble and said work to replace the defunct 25 MVA transformer has been started and same would take two to three days.
The problem of fluctuations and load shedding would be removed within next three days and till then citizens should bear with us, the appeal of MSEDCL further said. From the Besa 132/11 KV sub-station the 13 lines are channelled to the areas of Dighori, Janki Nagar, Mahalaxmi Nagar, Tajbagh, Manewada, Besa, Hudkeshwar and Vihirgaon.
The problem arose on Sunday which affected power supply to Gracia Colony, Ramakrishna Nagar, Janki Nagar, Mahalakshmi Nagar, Tajbagh, New Subhedar, Juna Subhedar, Shrikrishna Nagar, Ashirwad Nagar, Bhole Nagar, Janki Nagar, Vihirgaon, LoveKush Nagar, Dighori Toll Naka, Narsala, Tekap City. At present, 4 out of 13 channels are being supplied with power from other sub-stations.
Also, power is being supplied to the remaining 9 power lines through another 25 MVA transformer in the 132 KV Besa sub-station itself. MSETCL officials have undertaken action to replace the defective transformer. A new transformer of 25 MVA capacity has been made available and its replacement is in progress. But it may take two to three days. Therefore, MSEDCL has started supplying electricity to the customers on the power lines dependent on this transformer through an alternative system as above. From the point of view of safety, between 7 pm and 4 am there is a possibility that the power supply of electricity will be disrupted for one to two hours in a cyclical manner.
MSEDCL has requested the citizens of this area to cooperate by reducing the use of AC and other high power consuming devices. Superintending Engineer Amit Paranjpe, Executive Engineer Sameer Tekade, Chief Engineer of MSETCL and other senior officers also reviewed the repair work and gave instructions to carry out repairs as soon as possible.