A storm that hit various parts of Punjab on Wednesday night caused losses worth over Rs 15 crore to the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), impacting the power transmission and distribution infrastructure.

As a result, many areas, both rural and urban, remained without power for hours across the state. The supply was, however, restored in majority of the area by Thursday afternoon.

As per sources, major impact of the storm was felt in four of the five distribution zones of the PSPCL i.e. Ludhiana, Patiala, Bathinda and Jalandhar, comprising over 20 districts. “The storm resulted in substantial damage to power supply infrastructure amounting to over Rs 15 crore. In all, about 1,200 distribution transformers, 6,000 electricity poles and 1,000 km conductor lines were damaged,” said the initial assessment report prepared by the PSPCL.

The supply to 350 non-agriculture feeders (domestic supply) out of the 6,000 and 750 agriculture power feeders (farm supply) out of 7,000 was affected due to broken poles etc.

“This meant that power supply was hit in many parts of the state. While in planned colonies and areas, the power was restored within a couple of hours, it took the staff over 8-10 hours to restore power in slums, illegal colonies and areas with undeclared load,” said an official.

“Our officers and field staff worked hard and restored supply to all 250 affected 66 kV grids and substations,” said a senior official.

PSPCL insiders said the supply to the remaining 2 per cent pockets in the state would be restored by late this evening. “By 3 pm, the power supply to a majority of the villages and residential areas was restored,” they claimed.

“Our teams worked hard despite having suffered losses due to high velocity winds and from a demand of around 2,500 MW due to power snags across the state, we were able to supply 11,300 MW power today,” said Power Minister Harbhajan Singh. “Soon, we will hire more people to meet staff shortage, so that consumers face minimum power snags,” he added.

A senior PSPCL official said, “Power snags during such storms are bound to happen and our teams always try to restore supply at the earliest in such cases. Until the government ensures strict action in cases of illegal power connections and access load, there is little that we can do to further improve the situation.”

370 poles damaged in Sangrur circle

• The Sangrur distribution circle of the PSPCL, comprising Sangrur, Sunam, Lehra, Dirba, Dhuri and Patran distribution divisions, suffered a loss of Rs 53 lakh due to the storm
• Superintending Engineer Rattan Mittal said 70 electricity transformers and 370 poles were damaged in six divisions of the Sangrur circle
• The supply to almost all domestic & industrial consumers had been restored

Major impact in 4 distribution zones

• The storm had a major impact in four of the five distribution zones of the PSPCL i.e. Ludhiana, Patiala, Bathinda and Jalandhar, comprising over 20 districts
• “In all, about 1,200 distribution transformers, 6,000 electricity poles & 1,000 km conductor lines were damaged,” said an initial assessment report of the PSPCL