POWER TO PEOPLE ... WHEN RAIN REIGNS?

ith the rapidly approaching monsoon, one question which always remains in the minds of the people is how many power cuts are they going to face this coming rainy season.

Citizens also question about the preparations of the Electricity Department as they claim it is an annual scenario in which power cuts are regular in the monsoons contrary to the fact that the power department has already done their monsoon preparation well in time.

“There are power shutdowns just before the monsoon season wherein the department claims that they are preparing for the monsoon, so that people get uninterrupted power supply but later when Goa is under the monsoons in June, power cuts are regular. So who is to be blamed for this; isn’t it the department? What provisions are being done by the department?” questions Anirudha Bhaje, a resident of Taleigao.

Meanwhile, it may be recalled that on May 5, the entire state was in complete darkness following the collapse of the Western grid in which the department itself admitted that Goa was in full darkness for almost 20 minutes after which the power was restored in a phased manner.

Surprisingly the next day (May 6 night), Goa again was in complete darkness as pre-monsoon showers hit the state along with thunder, lightning and powerful winds which led to the collapse of the 110KV line at Thivim. All this indicates how much the state is prepared to tackle such stormy winds, heavy rains and lightning and thunder during the coming monsoon season.

If the first spell of rains, just lasting for minutes, can put the state in complete darkness with power cut for almost 2 hours then we can imagine the power crises during the actual monsoon season and most importantly of how much the department is prepared to tackle this issue said one citizen from Taleigao.

Sources have said that during rains power outage occurs mainly because of breakdown of power supply that occurs due to the line to ground fault which are caused due to the failure of insulator.

People have further questioned whether the Electricity Department is in a position to guarantee there will not be power cuts during the coming monsoon season as they claim preparing for the monsoon well in advance.

Meanwhile, citizens have also pointed out that if power supply is regular, another major hindrance for the power to fail is the branches of trees falling on the overhead lines which trip and power is cut.

“Another reason pointed out for power failure is that many a time the Forest Department does not grant permission for cutting the branches close to overhead lines. During the rainy season when there are extreme winds these trees collapse directly on the wires causing the damage. I do not know who is responsible for this but something should be done or the department should take up underground cabling on priority to avoid such unnecessary hindrances,” said a local who did not want to reveal his identity.

Meanwhile, most people will feel that power crises can be solved only by adding generation capacity, by adopting renewable solutions big time or by fixing corruption with coal. Failures of local transformers are very common. Although with use of latest technologies, this problem has been mitigated to quite an extent, but still there are lot of places, where the work is still pending. Just like bad roads, bad power systems still exist in many places in Goa resulting in failures leading to power cuts.

On the other hand Electricity Department’s Chief Electrical Engineer Laxmikant Kolvekar has said that his department is trying to deliver uninterrupted power supply to the people of Goa during the monsoon season.

“The department has already started with the monsoon preparations like trimming of tree branches, checking oil levels and also greasing and other routine maintenance of transformers. Each substation does its routine maintenance work. South Goa preparations are mostly done and now in North Goa we were supposed to have a power shutdown but now it has been postponed,” said Kolvekar.

“Thunder and lightning is unavoidable as it can strike over the lines anytime causing power failure though the department is taking steps like trimming of tree branches so that it does not fall on the lines but in some cases the Forest Department does not give us the permission to cut certain branches and sometimes it leads to that same branch falling on the lines causing damage,” he added.