Power shutdowns due to maintenance work can cause minor inconveniences. But this is essential for timely fault detection, says TANGEDCO’s Luz area engineer.
He says, “There are four substations that feed power to the Mylapore area, the Luz substation near the Mylapore Railway Station, the substation at Visalakshi Thottam and one each at R. A. Puram and Foreshore Estate. Each substation feeds power to several areas. For example the one at Visalakshi Thottam feeds almost half of Mandaveli, St. Mary’s Road, Dr. Ranga Road, C. P. Ramaswamy Road and T. T. K. Road. Each area has several transformers, pillars and other structures. Routine maintenance is very essential as this helps us take corrective action as soon as a problem is detected”.
He continues, “Maintenance work can be classified into three kinds, pillar maintenance, structure maintenance and sub-station maintenance. Pillar maintenance can take upto an hour and a half, five pillars are checked in this time. Structure maintenance takes atleast four hours. The transformers have to be switched off and any repairs or changes to the structure if necessary are carried out. Sub-station maintenance takes about 8 hours”.
Routine maintenance on the substation at Visalakshi Thottam was done last month. The one at Luz is next, he adds.
But, they must stick to the published timings. It was mentioned as 9 to 4 pm, but the power resumed only by 6:20 at Mandaveli