Chennai: Residents in several neighbourhoods woke up to power supply interruptions on Saturday morning as strong winds and mild showers in parts of the city affected the distribution network. No large-scale outages were reported, but residents flagged power cuts in areas such as Perambur, Kilpauk and Nanganallur in the city, and in suburbs on the periphery, including Madhavaram, Maduravoyal and Kovilambakkam. Later, interruptions were also reported from Mylapore, Vadapalani, Chintadripet, Mangadu, Pallikaranai and Pallavaram.Shajita, a resident of Perambur, said there was no electricity in Agaram for nearly four hours on Saturday. “There was no one to complain to. Local elecricity board (EB) personnel are not available over the phone to raise a complaint,” she said. Muralitharan, a resident of Maduravoyal, said he too could not call EB personnel to report the snapping of a live cable.Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Ltd (TNPDCL) officials said the interruptions were because of tripping of feeders and distribution transformers, and flashing of insulators. In all, 22 power feeders and eight distribution transformers tripped, while flashing was reported in 12 insulators and one junction box. On Saturday, Minnagam, TNPDCL’s centralised grievance redress system, received 4,000 calls till evening, about 1,500 more than the daily average. “Our mobile restoration teams fixed the issues quickly and restored power supply. Some consumers may face problems at individual premises because of wiring faults, and those will be addressed if complaints are formally raised,” an official said.TNPDCL, which had put regular maintenance of its distribution assets on hold because of board examinations and the state assembly election, is expected to resume work next week.
