Waterlogging hits power supply

Waterlogging in many societies led to shutting down of 11 transformers of 11 KV Wadgaon feeder in Parvati division from 3 pm as a precautionary measure.

There was no power supply at Eknath Nagar,Anand Nagar,Vitthal Nagar,Sharada Sarovar and Raj Park Society while the release of water from the Pavana dam stopped supply of electricity in some areas in Chinchwad and in Pathavade village. MSEDCL officials said two transformers were shut behind the Moriya Gosavi temple in Chinchwad Chief Engineer,Pune division of MSEDCL,S P Nagtilak admitted that rain was the biggest challenge faced by the power utility. It is the utilitys major test to ensure continuous supply of power, he said.

Continuous rain for two-three days has led to water seeping in the underground cables and causing breakdown of supply in certain areas. Recently around four societies were affected at Pimple Saudagar which did not get power for nearly 40 hours.

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Pune has 832 major feeders that cater to over 14 lakh urban consumers. If 10-12 feeders develop a fault then barely one per cent of the population is affected,said Nagtilak. Our major concern during monsoon is falling of trees and breaking of overhead lines,disc insulator puncture and cable faults. Overhead lines are susceptible to faults due to lightning or other climatic conditions, he said.

There are 137 sub-stations and each sub-station has several feeder lines. The fault has to be initially located,said Nagtilak who pointed out that the MSEDCL has outsourced the work. The power utility has also procured another cable fault finding machine but it still takes one or two hours to rectify a cable fault as water is likely to seep underground and damage it.

A major fault takes 8-9 hours to be corrected,he said,adding that line staff and technical experts have to take special precautions to repair the fault.

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