Hundreds of residents of Grewal Colony were left without power for nearly 17 hours after a distribution transformer caught fire late on Sunday, disrupting power and water supplies in the area.
Residents claim that repeated complaints about oil leakage at PSPCL have gone unheeded. (HT file)
The fire, caused by an oil leak, severely damaged cables connected to a transformer, leaving the area without power from about 10:50 pm Sunday until nearly 4:20 pm Monday, although temperatures remained high.
The transformer, installed at Street No. 4 of Grewal Colony, caught fire after residents noticed plumes of smoke coming from the unit. Within minutes, flames engulfed the connected cables, plunging the area into darkness.
Residents alleged that oil was leaking from the transformer for several days and alleged that they had repeatedly alerted Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) officials about the fault.
They alleged that preventive maintenance was not carried out despite repeated complaints and argued that the incident could have been prevented if timely action had been taken.
The prolonged shutdown has severely disrupted daily life. In addition to electricity, the community’s water supply was also affected as household water pumps remained inoperable.
Residents said overhead reservoirs had run dry, forcing many households to struggle for drinking water and other basic needs, while a prolonged power outage left fans, coolers and other critical appliances unusable overnight and for much of Monday.
Sunita, a local resident, said the power outage had brought normal life to a standstill.
“There was no power all night and most of Monday. With fans and coolers not working, it became extremely difficult to stay indoors in this heat. With our water pumps also unable to work, many households ran out of water by morning,” she said.
Rajesh Kumar, another resident, said long power outages due to transformer faults have become more frequent this summer.
“Whenever there is a fault in a transformer, it takes several hours to restore. In this weather, even a few hours without power becomes difficult, but this outage lasted almost the entire day and affected children, the elderly and working families alike,” he said.
Following the incident, residents alerted PSPCL officials and the fire brigade. Although the fire was brought under control without any casualties, restoration was delayed as damaged cables had to be replaced before power could be restored.
Sundar Nagar Division Executive Engineer (XEN) Jagmohan Singh said the transformer itself remained intact and restoration took longer due to the extent of damage to the connected cables.
“The transformer remained intact, but the connected cables were severely damaged after a fire caused by an oil leak. Replacing the damaged cables took considerable time due to the extent of the damage. Power was restored at around 4.20pm after repairs were completed. Damages are estimated to be approx. ₹50 thousand,” he said.
“Due to the ongoing heat wave, the number of complaints related to faulty and overloaded transformers has increased significantly across the division, making troubleshooting difficult,” he added.
Sundar Nagar Division Additional Chief Engineer Rajesh Kumar said the utility has switched load through an alternative option to minimize disruption during repair work.
“The transformer was not damaged. However, the connected cables caught fire and had to be replaced. As an emergency measure, the load was switched to a spare feeder to restore power supply to most consumers while repair work continued. The remaining restoration work was completed after replacing the damaged cables and complete normalization of power supply,” he said.
PSPCL officials said power supply was restored after replacing damaged cables and reconnecting the damaged load.