Fire at substation leaves Moga without power, residents harried

Faridkot, July 23

The residents of Moga town have been grappling with prolonged outages for four days amid sultry weather conditions after a major fire broke out at the 220 KV grid sub-station. The residents have had to face a tough time since Saturday evening as all 11 power supply feeders in Moga town were dependent on the 220 KV grid sub-station.

The PSPCL has been trying to make temporary arrangements by giving irregular power supplies to the different localities of the town after snapping the supply to the nearby towns. However, in the sweltering weather conditions, frequent outages have forced people to rely on diesel generators, which adds to noise and air pollution along with digging holes in people’s pockets.

Apart from the residents, Moga farmers were up in arms against the PSPCL for power outages during the time of paddy plantations.

The PSPCL authorities claimed the work to restore the power supply was going on at a good pace. The protesting farmers said the disruption in the power supply to the agriculture sector affected the paddy crop.

The fire at the 22 kV grid substation, situated near Singhwanwala village on the Moga-Kotkapura road, disturbed the power supply to Moga town and many other villages in the area. Sources in PSPCL said that the fire led to complete damage to a 20 MW transformer, which cost about Rs 3.5 crore.

PSPCL Superintending Engineer Parampal Singh Bhuttar said the power restoration work was going on, and the PSPCL was hopeful of restoring normal power supply within 24 hours. He said all efforts were being made to supply power for a minimum of six hours to the agriculture sector so that the farmers do not face shortages of water in the rearing and plantation of the paddy crop.