Why is power supply shaken by wind, rain?

WEAK INFRASTRUCTURE? Nearly 30% of city powerless after Sunday showers

LUCKNOW: Despite spending nearly ` 500 crore on the maintenance of lines and transformers during the last five years, LESA is apparently still not able to check power cuts due to rain/ storms.

And Sunday was no exception, as nearly 30% of the city went without power during the night hours. Reason: The infrastructure was not able to withstand the inclement weather. After the downpour, areas like Chander nagar, Patel Nagar, Adarsh nagar, Tedhipulia, Shanti Nagar, Arjun Nagar, Geetapalli and Bara Barha had no supply at night as the main transmission line to Alambagh crashed.

Meanwhile, all the nine sub-stations connected with the 132 kv transformer of Nimboo park failed. Here too, power supply was normalised only in the morning. LESA officials ‘unofficially’ admitted that with the present infrastructure, LESA didn’t have any solution for power cuts caused due to seasonal affects like storm or rain.

An official said, “We work with old technology despite knowing its drawbacks. During Navneet Sehgal’s tenure as UPPCL MD there was a proposal to put all the power cables underground.

The World Bank had also assured of financial assistance for the project. But the programme was never taken seriously.”

Avadhesh Kumar Varma, chairman, UP Rajya Vidyut Upbhokta Parishad said: “Cities like Wellington are considered as the most windy places. But no power cut is reported there. If they can develop a system to ensure uninterrupted power supply, then why can’t our engineers do it?

He said Lucknow, has one of the highest rates of transformer snags with over 30% of its total transformers getting damaged. Every year, over 2,000 transformers are damaged and this proves that some compromise is made in their quality, added Varma.

He said the number of consumers was increasing at the rate of 5% while power consumption was also increasing by 15%, but LESA didn’t have any plan for increasing loads.

LESA GM SK Varma said the power body had already ensured underground power supply in Hazratganj while Aminabad was next in line. “After that more areas would be given power supply through underground network, but this is an expensive task and we will go for a judicious mix of underground and overhead cables in every area,” he said.