POWER OUTAGE IN KERALA

Reliable data could not be found about the average power outages per day in Kerala. However every domestic consumer knows that power outages are usual and a number of times almost every day. Duration of each cut may last from a few minutes to a few hours. Over and above these each local edition of news paper carries advance information about power disruption for a longer duration in different areas. Normally these interruptions are from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. This is not only at one place but at many locations throughout the state almost every day. It is not known whether generation is brought down correspondingly. If not, the electricity board must be loosing huge sum for every power cut.

According to available information the following countries are most energy efficient in the world. Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, France, Denmark, Austria, Spain, Columbia, New Zealand and Uruguay are the top ten countries recorded in 2018. It is understood that people do not use  any alternative source like generators, inverters etc in these countries as there are no power disruptions. Power systems in developed nations are routinely designed and built to resist a variety of natural disruptions like lightening strikes, wind and ice storms, fires and various equipment malfunctions etc. Simply adding generation and transmission capacity does not always makes the system more robust. Multiple input system is arranged in all developed countries. This helps to use alternative input when one input have any problems. Due to the high frequency of power outages caused by squirrels, rats and other animals across the world, it is essential to have a high quality and versatile product that deters squirrels and other animals from gaining access to the power lines and transformers in the first place. Line guard prevents squirrels from running across overhead lines to access substations, transformers, pole mounted switches and  other critical equipments. Two free spinning wheels act as a jump barrier on both ends of the assembly and five rollers spin independently about the line should the initial barrier be cleared from either side . This is being effectively used by many countries.

In Kerala we have many causes for power failures like faults at power stations, damages to transmission lines, substations or other parts of the distribution system,  short circuit, cascading failure etc. We have enough expertise available in our own state which can be tapped to find the causes for all power outages and suggest effective remedial measures. The helm of affairs of the department must find time to give due attention to this. Above all since power outages cause inconvenience to people, loss of production in industries and also revenue loss to the department power outages should be brought under statutory auditing.

Let us make Kerala a zero power outage state in India.

KV George