City takes triple hit on manic Monday Power cuts & heat woes

Staggered power cuts for up to nine hours since Sunday night tormented parts of Calcutta amid a spell of sultry weather, but CESC has promised relief and the weather office has forecast rain on Tuesday. Between seven and 10 phases of “power outage” triggered by a transformer fire in a state-owned plant in Kalyani were reported across the city till 8pm on Monday evening, affecting over 8 lakh out of CESC’s consumer base of 25 lakh. The phased power cuts began at 11.20pm on Sunday, shortly after the fire in a 132KV transformer forced the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd to shut down its Jirat substation. The unit is linked to its Kasba landing station, which supplies power to the CESC grid. When the fire was reported, CESC was coping with a peak-hour demand of around 1,100MW in Calcutta and importing around 400MW from the state utility. The shutdown immediately created a shortfall of 400MW, leaving nearly a third of the city powerless. The deficit was brought down to 100MW by 9am on Monday, but power cuts continued with three of CESC’s own units — I and III in Budge Budge (capacity of 250MW each) and I in Southern (67.5MW) — tripping for reasons that have yet to be ascertained. By noon, the deficit was back to 400MW with demand rising because of the hot and humid weather. From Shyambazar, Bagbazar and Sovabazar in the north to Kasba, Ballygunge and Dhakuria in the south, consumers dialled the CESC helpline 1912 through the day to find out when their ordeal would end. “This is not the first time we have had to bear the brunt of this so-called power outage. The heat is making it worse for us,” grumbled 52-year-old Lake Town resident Sujit Dutta. “Between 10am and 7pm, we faced over five hours of power cuts,” said 30-year-old Abhinav Shaw, a resident of Kankurgachhi. Elderly people like Abhinav’s 88-year-old grandmother suffered the most. “It was terrible for my grandmother, who took ill after a couple of hours without the fan. I dialled the CESC helpline repeatedly, but got no response. It was frustrating,” he said. Some hospitals, including RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute and Chittaranjan Seva Sadan also suffered power cuts ranging from 30 minutes to two hours. At Chittaranjan cancer institute and Seva Sadan, planned surgeries had to be postponed because of the power cuts. Police stations housed in poorly ventilated buildings functioned under the light of candles. The weather was just as unrelenting. The maximum and the minimum temperatures were three notches above normal at 35.1 and 28.6 degrees Celsius, while humidity ranged between 63 and 92 per cent. Isolated spells of rainfall, which added up to 1.5mm till 5.30pm on Monday, did little to bring relief. The city has had a rainfall deficit of 42 per cent for July, usually the wettest month of the year with an average rain count of 331.8mm. The weather office said Tuesday might bring a prolonged spell of rain from the afternoon with a cyclonic circulation forming in the vicinity of the city. CESC also promised normal power supply on Tuesday. “Since 2pm on Monday, supply has got better with the two Budge Budge units back in operation. When demand peaked around 7pm to touch the 1,400MW mark, we were able to import 500MW from the state utility,” an official said.