Wokha: Power outage enters third week

Damaged transformers await repair in Dimapur

Morung Express News
Wokha | September 29

Residents of Police Reserve Colony and parts of Blue Hill Colony in Wokha are facing a prolonged power outage since September 4, disrupting daily life. The outage has affected cooking, communication, work, and studies, while inverters have run out of charge. Refrigerators have been off for extended periods, spoiling perishable food. It has also disrupted operations at the Office of the Superintendent of Police (SP), Wokha, located within the Police Reserve premises.

Speaking on the issue, Er Chenosing Kemp, Executive Engineer, Electrical Division, Wokha, said the transformer supplying power to the affected areas was damaged due to overloading.

He said the transformer serving the NAP camp and public supply is a 100 kVA transformer, while the SP office has a separate 25 kVA transformer. The 25 kVA transformer belongs to the SP department, which will take care of its repair. However, the Electrical Division provided logistical assistance in sending the transformer to Dimapur for repairs.

According to the Executive Engineer, the transformers serving the Police Reserve and NAP camp are currently under repair at the transformer repairing centre in Dimapur. He said the repair centre caters to transformer-related work from across Nagaland, resulting in a waiting period.

He explained that the department is unable to provide a definite restoration timeline as the damaged transformers first have to be repaired and brought back to Wokha. Since there is no standby 100 kVA transformer currently available for adjustment, restoration will depend on the completion of the repair work.

Er Kemp also explained that a similar transformer failure had affected Zuvotong and Blue Hill Colony, where a 250 kVA transformer supplying both colonies was damaged due to overloading. However, the department was able to restore power there after about five to six days as a standby transformer of the required capacity was available.

He said the Police Reserve and NAP camp transformers were damaged before the transformer serving Zuvotong and Blue Hill Colony, but no suitable standby transformer was available for the 100 kVA units.

The Executive Engineer further stressed the need for consumers to adopt smart meters, saying better regulation of electricity consumption could help prevent overloading and reduce the chances of transformer failures.

He said the department has been conducting awareness programmes and encouraging consumers to install smart meters as part of efforts to improve the electricity distribution system and provide a more stable power supply.

However, he said consumers in some colonies have been reluctant to adopt smart meters, despite the department approaching them even after transformer failures.

The department has urged consumers to cooperate with such measures, stating that controlling electricity consumption is important for improving the reliability and stability of the power supply system.