BHUBANESWAR: The Capital City witnessed one of its worst power crisis scenarios which threw normal life out of gear even as an unrelenting heatwave claimed more than 60 lives and left large parts of the State sweating.On Friday, when Bhubaneswar recorded 42 degree Celsius, a breakdown in major power supply lines and a dysfunctional transformer crippled power supply to the City. The capital experienced severe power disruption, low-voltage as well as power surge. With people already suffering from scorching heat, disruption in power supply only added to their miseries.Mendhasal-Meramundali double circuit (DC) line reported a fault with the first circuit of 400 KV getting tripped. The Orissa Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (OPTCL) found it hard to rectify the snag which occurred at about 5 km from Mendhasal. And presence of an elephant herd in the area kept the line patrol team away for long hours.“We are trying to locate the fault as line patrolling has been launched. We are hopeful of an improvement in the situation soon,” Director (Commerce) P K Pradhan said.In the absence of 400 KV circuit line, power was supplied through the 220 KV line, which led to a sudden dip in voltage. That was not the only problem though. The OPTCL tried to generate additional power from hydel sources from the south using the Meramundali-Bhanjanagar 220 KV line, but it could not take the load. As a result, Bhubaneswar experienced power shortage on a sizzling summer day. To add to the woes, a 40 MVA transformer in Chandaka Grid has gone phut for the last four days putting additional pressure on the supply. While the load managers had to depend on 20 MVA transformers, it was clearly not adequate. The repair and revival of the 40 MVA transformer are expected to take more than a week, which means there is little hope for any relief soon.Interestingly, the City’s power crisis started more than a week ago when Baripada-Mendhasal 400 KV double circuit line saw breakdown of its towers. At least five towers of this Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) line are believed to have gone bad snapping supply through that route. This line is expected to be restored in the next two to three days.Amidst the shortage of power, distcom CESU felt the heat as the growing demand showed on the quality of supply. Large parts of the City had to make do with fluctuating voltage which lingered till late into the night. “There is a serious load on the systems because of the rising demand, most of which is unplanned,” Superintending Engineer, Bhubaneswar Circle, Utkal Sinha said.As Bhubaneswar suffered, the heatwave showed no signs of let-up across the State. Sambalpur turned into a boiling cauldron with the day temperature jumping to the season’s highest of 46.7 degree Celsius. Hirakud was equally hot with the mercury reading 46.6 degree whereas most western Odisha towns recorded 45 degree Celsius.The unofficial death toll rose to 68 on Friday while the weather office warned that the heatwave will continue to prevail for the next couple of days.
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