Sangvi: Electricity Supply Affected As Underground Power Lines Broken At 405 Places In Last One Year Due To Excavations

Mrunal Jadhav

Pune, 22 April 2021: Excavations at various places in the Sangvi area started by JCB and other machinery has resulted in the disconnection of the power supply. Due to the disconnection of Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited’s underground high and low voltage power lines at 405 places in the last year, MSEDCL has to bear the financial loss of lakhs of rupees and the consumers have to suffer unnecessarily due to interrupted power supply.

On March 26, MSEDCL’s high-voltage underground power line was broken during excavation, causing a 50-MVA capacity Transformer in the 132 KV high-voltage substation. As a result, the power supply to all the seven lines of MSEDCL supplying power to 1.90 lakh consumers in the Sangvi subdivision was cut off. It took eight days to replace transformers.

During this period, MSEDCL facilitated power supply through alternative arrangements on the battlefield. However, load management was not possible and in some areas, weight regulation had to be done in a circular manner.

Currently, Covid Hospital will soon be set up at the PWD ground in Sangvi due to the second wave of Covid-19. However, the power supply to this hospital and other hospitals in Sangvi is likely to be disrupted if the excavation continues.

In the Sangvi subdivision under the Pimpri division, power is supplied to some areas of Wakad, Tathawade, Old and New Sangvi, Pimple Saudagar, Pimple Gurav, Pimple Nilakh, Vishalnagar, Thergaon. Since April 1 last year, 74 high voltage and 331 low voltage power lines of MSEDCL have been cut in the area. Road widening, water and drainage pipelines, cables of private companies are being excavated in this area.

According to MSEDCL officials, excavation is underway without any prior notice to MSEDCL. As a result, the number of power outages has increased. MSEDCL engineers and employees have to work hard to restore the power supply overnight. Sometimes the power supply is interrupted for two to three hours due to the unavailability of an alternative power supply. As a result, MSEDCL has to bear the loss in power sales as well as the cost of repairing the lines.

“At the same time, consumers are suffering unnecessarily due to power outages. It has also been observed that underground cables are being broken two to three times in one place. MSEDCL can take care that there will be no danger to power lines if it gets prior information about the excavation. A total of seven cases have been registered so far”, MSEDCL stated in a press release.