THE STATE Capital may not be facing scarcity of electricity, but a big gap in demand and supply of transformers has made people’s life miserable.
The pace of damage of transformers in LESA is faster than the arrival of new transformers or the repair of the damaged ones. Hence, the people of the affected areas have to face power crisis for hours once a transformer is damaged or burnt. For example, a 400-kv transformer installed in Sector 8, Indira Nagar burnt around midnight on Tuesday. The entire colony, including Dawarikapuri, was plunged into darkness. When the residents contacted the SDO, he said that he was waiting for the store to open to get a replacement for the transformer. The executive engineer was not even aware of the residents having passed the night strolling on their roofs.
In the morning, the executive engineer and his team made all the efforts to get a new transformer, but in vain as no transformer was available. They connected the affected areas to another transformer meant for other localities. So, the supply returned on Wednesday, but the voltage low. Before the officials could heave a sigh of relief, another transformer went phut in Indira Nagar.Significantly, the mobile trolley transformers meant to be installed in place of the damaged ones as an interim arrangement, are functioning as a permanent system.
There are a dozen distribution divisions in LESA and each division has 2-4 mobile trolley transformers. But almost all the transformers are engaged these days due to shortage of new/repaired transformers.