The residents of Kilpauk and Purasawalkam who were hopeful of the opening of a new Fuse Off Call (FOC) office for faster response in case of power failures are dismayed by the delay in executing the project.
R. Sundar, a resident of Sundaram Lane, said usually the residents find it difficult to contact the FOC during electricity failures, with the telephone line remaining engaged always.
A senior official of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) said the proposal to open a new FOC centre in Kellys Sub Station is pending and a decision would be taken soon.
The official said a proposal was mooted by the Tangedco to bifurcate the Kellys FOC centre to reduce the burden of the FOC staff covering four substations to face the brunt of the residents’ ire in case of power interruptions.
Moreover, being a vast area having a large number of commercial connections, the maintenance personnel of the FOC have to travel a long way resulting in causing undue delay in attending to electricity faults. He cited an example where in case of power supply disruptions in Kellys and Purasawalkam at the same time the FOC staff are put in a difficult situation to assess the priority.
The FOC operating at the Kellys substation on Medavakkam Tank Road serves four electricity sections, namely Kilpauk, Kellys, Purasawalkam and Nammalwarpet.
Being a big section covering domestic and commercial loads having more than 50,000 service connections, the maintenance staff at the Kellys FOC is unable to attend to faults as per the Tamil Nadu Electricity Distribution Standard of Performance Regulation.
The official of Tangedco said the electricity consumers in the city are served by 69 FOCs in which a maximum of three electricity sections would be accommodated in one FOC. But in the case of Kellys SS, four substations are covered, which was the main reason for the electricity department to propose bifurcation of the Kellys FOC.
However, another official of Tangedco said opening an FOC centre involves huge capital outlay and recurring costs. Also the centralised helpline bearing 1912 already having more than 20 lines the consumers would not have any difficulty in communicating any power faults in their locality.
