Morung Express News
Dimapur | November 17
Power woes continue to afflict Dimapur unabated. Less than a week after a critical transformer went up in flames at the Nagarjan Sub-station, another sub-station was partially paralysed on November 17 cutting supply to a number of localities.
According to consumers affected as a result, power went off around 2:00 am on November 17 and was still to come on even in the late evening.
The culprit this time was an equipment snag at the Industrial Estate Sub-station, which feeds the western periphery of Dimapur.
The Executive Engineer, Dimapur Electrical Division informed that a “circuit breaker” got damaged at the sub-station the night before, which affected the “Kashiram feeder (line). As a result, supply to a number of areas, including Aoyimkum, Nepali Kashiram and a part of Duncan Basti was cut. He said that the problem could be detected only in the evening today. Stating that the damaged “circuit breaker” will be replaced on Saturday morning, the EE said it would take workers atleast 3 hours to do the job. He further informed that for workers’ safety supply from the affected sub-station would be halted during the repair.
Meanwhile, Minister for Power, C. Kipili Sangtam, in his first electricity-related public statement since the November 12 fire at the Nagarjan Sub-station, sought public cooperation till such time power supply is normalised. In a statement issued today, the Minister said that the Department of Power is making all out effort to normalise the power supply system in Dimapur in the “shortest possible time.”
Describing the latest in a string of several power crises to have hit Nagaland over the past many years, Sangtam said that one of the three 20MVA transformers at the 132KV Nagarjan Sub-Station, Dimapur was completely burnt on November 12.
Another 20MVA transformer was also partially damaged during the unexplained fire, the cause of which is yet to be made public. As reported earlier, only one 20MVA transformer, which was not affected by the fire, remained functional for over two days cutting supply to Peren and almost half of the town.
Power supply to Peren district was subsequently restored the next day by feeding it from Kohima RE Sub-Station, Sangtam added. In the meantime, the other partially damaged transformer was repaired on November 14 evening. “After that feeding of Power supply from the second transformer started in limited areas by restricting the load to 50% of the capacity. Subsequently the loading on the transformer was scaled up to feed more areas and the total capacity was brought to 40MVA,” he said.
To make up for the huge deficit, he said that department has approached the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited for a spare transformer “from the regional pool and the response is awaited.” Also as reported earlier, he said that the department is exploring the possibility of making use of a smaller capacity transformer to supplement supply.
With regard to the proposed procurement of an additional 100MVA transformer for the Nagarjan Sub-station, he said that the Department of Power is “pressing very hard.” In light of the circumstances, Sangtam appealed the public to “kindly bear with us for the inconveniences caused due to the unfortunate incident.”
