Power cuts were reported overnight in some areas

Chennai: As the nights are getting warmer, there are reports of prolonged power cuts in many areas of the city for the last few days. On Thursday, the temperature in Chennai crossed 40C for the second consecutive day. This affected the city’s electricity demand, which exceeded 4,800MW for the first time, breaking the previous record of 4,769MW in 2024.Residents of Villivakkam, Kodungaiyur, Nandambakkam, Velachery, Madipakkam, Thiruvanmiyur and Tiruvottiyur complained of power cuts for four hours on Wednesday night and Thursday, while peripheral areas like Muttukadu, Pattabhiram and Ponneri complained of power cuts for almost the entire night.Arun Prakash of Villivakkam said the power supply was disrupted around 4.30 am on Thursday and was restored at around 8.40 am. S Kannan of Nandambakkam said there were power cuts several times at night, with no one to complain to the local section office. In Tiruvottiyur, residents gathered at the section office on Thursday morning after there was no electricity overnight. Mohammed Yusuf of Madipakkam said that children are unable to sleep. “PM Modi is asking employees to work from home, but power supply is unreliable,” he said.Power cuts continued in various areas on Thursday, but TNPDCL officials said their quick response teams were on the ground to repair the fault in the network and restore power supply. “In Royapuram, the problem was with an underground cable, while the 33 KV substation reported a fault in Alandur. Similarly, a 250 KVA transformer in Semmancherry malfunctioned, disrupting supply to nearby areas. Most of the issues have been resolved,” he said.Power Minister CTR Nirmal Kumar on Thursday said complaints received through Minnagam, social media and WhatsApp were addressed immediately, giving clear feedback to consumers about the outage and estimated restoration period. “The reporting system will soon be made more interactive to keep consumers informed. Work is underway for this,” he said.