MAPUSA
All is not well on the power front in Mapusa and surrounding villages, even as voices against constant power outages and voltage fluctuations in the city are growing loud and shrill.
Residents have been facing severe hardships owing to rampant power cuts and fluctuations in the city.
Frustrated residents have sought to blame the government for failure to tide over the problem of erratic power supply.
"We face power outages every single day. It may be for five minutes or half an hour, but the fact is that power goes off every day in our area," said Mahesh Rane of Khorlim-Mapusa.
He blamed old transformers which have outlived its time and the department's sloppy job while undertaking maintenance work.
Locals said light in the city plays hide and seek at times because of scheduled power shutdown but mostly due to unscheduled power cuts.
"Erratic power supply is a huge problem in Mapusa. Power goes off almost every second day," said another resident from Gaunsa-vaddo. "Complaints to officials are of no use, as they have a readymade answer of either the transformer is faulty or the line has failed," he added.
Frequent power cuts also interrupt smooth water supply in many parts of the city.
An official in the Mapusa electricity department informed that power breakdowns did occur at times due to excess load. He gave various reasons for this, including stealing of electricity and unauthorised connections.
"Technical faults on transformers do occur for various reasons and once these are rectified, the supply is restored," the official said.
Mapusa power sub-station has four transformers with total load carrying capacity of 38 MVA. Besides supplying power to the whole of Mapusa, the sub-station supplies power to Guirim, Assagao, Anjuna, Siolim, Sodiem, Parra and other areas in Bardez.
Mapusa has seen a spurt in construction activity. Many old houses and structures have made way to large building complexes, putting pressure on existing power infrastructure.
"According to the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC), 80 percent of load of the total capacity of a sub-station can be distributed to consumers. This has crossed the limit at Mapusa power sub-station," a source in the know disclosed.
The Mapusa electricity department has put up a proposal to set up two new sub-stations in Mapusa in an attempt to augment power supply in the city.
One sub-station each with 20 MVA load has been proposed at Carras-vaddo and Morod.
Power department, Executive Engineer, R V Desai informed that a turnaround in the power scene will take place very soon, as the project for a new sub-station at Carras-vaddo has already been tendered.
"The government has given a green signal to the proposal of a sub-station at Carras-vaddo and the work has also been tendered. Work on the project is expected to start within a month," Desai said.
The executive engineer further informed that a decision has been taken to supply power to Saligao from the Porvorim sub-station to restore balance of load.
