Kolkata came to standstill on the eve Durga Puja as major breakdown in CESC system caused massive power cut for several hours. A sudden breakdown of electricity supply to the city lasting for hours gave a creepy feeling to the people on the eve of Durga Puja. The breakdown in power supply affected Metro Rail, city's major hospitals, the High Court, the state's administrative headquarters and the commercial hubs. The CESC which is responsible for maintaining electric supply to the city, had a major breakdown in its system, causing a shortfall of 635 mw. According to CESC, one of its 132 KV substation line snapped in the morning causing the breakdown. As a result, two of its units in Budge Budge power station and one in Southern Generating Station went out of the system. To save other power stations from tripping, the CESC had to isolate other units from the grid.
The generation in those units could not be restored till evening. The CESC generates around 900 mw and it gets another 500 Mw from WBSEDCL. The state-run WBPDCL generates on an average 2100-2200 mw and it gets another 900 mw from the central agencies like NTPC.
Though CESC tried to save the situation with additional drawing from West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (WBSEDCL) but that was not enough to meet the gap. While it affected the Metro Rail for about 25 minutes, and state-run medical college hospitals for hours, the puja shopping was badly hit.
Anirban Guha, one of the directors of WBSEDCL, while maintaining that it was an unfortunate breakdown which caused the sudden shortfall in power supply, assured that the WBSEDCL has already made a contingency plan to meet the growing demand on the eve of Durga Puja festival. For that, WBSEDCL have arranged for buying additional power from Orissa and North Eastern states. Earlier, poor supply of coal forced the state run WBPDCL to shut down some of its units causing a major power crisis in the first two weeks of September. There were several incidents where irate consumers ransacked WBSEDCL offices in the districts after suffering prolonged power cut. With the improved supply of coal, the power situation is now somewhat stable. But today's breakdown has made people apprehensive about the festival days ahead.
