18 May 2021  |   06:52am IST

Power supply to be fully restored by today

Power supply to be fully restored by today

Team Herald


PANJIM: Power supply will be fully restored across Goa by Tuesday evening, latest by Wednesday morning in any remaining areas. 

Speaking to media persons on Monday, Superintending Engineer (SE) of the Electricity Department Stephen Fernandes, said their staff has been working 24/7 restoring supply that snapped on Sunday due to Cyclone Tauktae leaving large areas of the State without power. 

Fernandes said the damage caused by the impact has been like nothing the department has seen in the last 25 years and that the multiple problems it caused, weren’t something that could be repaired immediately. 

He pointed out that once they had received the weather update, they had set up a control room and 28 available contractors with 200-odd staff and equipment like cranes etc had been deployed to various areas. The control room had the Chief Engineers, SEs, Executive Engineers monitoring the power breakdowns in a continuous manner. However, the intensity of the cyclone was far more than they could handle.  

Right from an unprecedented reduction in the load supply, to the number of poles falling, lines getting snapped or entangled, insulators failing and even a tower collapsing at Banastarim, the power department officials were overstretched, he said. 

Regarding the load supply, he said this had also resulted in high voltage issues, which had to be properly assessed as well before they could carry out their work. 


He also added that their staff strength had also been affected by the prevailing pandemic, which added to the difficulties they were facing. Staff was important as they had expert knowledge about their respective jurisdictions. 

Further, with the heavy downpour and strong winds, it was not easy for the linesmen to physically carry out repairs as climbing poles etc was very difficult. He added that the paths to these places were not easily accessible for the staff given the number of trees that had uprooted and other such problems.

Pointing out that Panjim and Margao areas were not so affected due to underground cabling, he said the issue was with the overhead lines that are affected by the weather conditions like lightning, thunder and the cyclone storm.

The department has now managed to source 150-odd additional staff from outside Goa such as Kolhapur and Belgaum, while another set of people with the required expertise are coming to fix the Banastarim tower.

Fernandes added that following all safety precautions, all the 22 KV lines have been restored and most of the 33 and 110 KV lines are being restored. However, it is the LT lines and distribution transformation centres that will take time to be repaired.

Fernandes said their emphasis was to ensure that there was power supply to oxygen plants, hospitals and COVID centres in the State in view of the pandemic.

He also pointed out that their staff have barely had 2-3 hours of sleep and that they have been working through these harsh conditions to see that the people get their power supply back at the earliest. 


IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar