Sudha is fuming over the damage caused to her new television by voltage fluctuations on Wednesday evening. Chennaiites may have somehow got inured to the 2-hour power outage but they have not prepared for the voltage fluctuations.
This has become a constant pain for many and, despite several complaints, there is no end in sight to the problem. Complaints of voltage fluctuations affecting electrical and electronic appliances are pouring in.
“We were clueless when our televison set suddenly went off as it was recently bought. When we approached a TV mechanic he revealed after inspection that the condenser had been affected due to a voltage fluctuation,” rues Sudha, a resident of Mohammedan Street in Perambur.
The mechanic also said that the problem has been persistent in the locality and that he had attended to similar type of faults in nearby Foxen Street and Vasudevan Street. “Earlier the problem was not so grave, but this has been happening quite often these days,” she adds.
Not only in Perambur but this has been a persistent problem in Ayanavaram, Vadapalani and other places, suburban areas in particular. Residents complain that the fluctuations are also affecting students who are preparing for examinations.
“Although the fluctuation problem has come down in our locality after the recent power outages, the issue persists in the evenings. Sudden dips in voltage affect the lights and there is a constant flickering of lights thereby disturbing students,” complains Mr Raghvan, president, Nanganallur residents welfare association. Sometimes appliances like fans do not work from midnight to early morning, he adds.
When asked, an executive engineer of TANGEDCO reasoned that it could have happened due to increase demand. “In the evenings public tend to use AC thereby increasing the demand. This apart, there are a lot of issues which could not be explained,” he added.