Chennai and several districts in Tamil Nadu have seen a spate of unannounced power cuts over the past few days, triggering complaints and confusion among residents. The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) has now issued an explanation, listing the key reasons behind the interruptions.
TNEB said the state has sufficient electricity availability and that recent peak demand has remained below 20,000 MW on most days. It added that generation, transmission and distribution systems are continuously monitored through the State Load Despatch Centre, SCADA centres and field-level officials.
According to the utility, Tamil Nadu’s grid infrastructure includes 1,910 substations operating across voltage levels from 765 kV down to 33 kV, with 283 substation works currently in progress. Power is supplied to about 3.51 crore consumers through a network that includes high-tension, high-voltage and low-voltage lines, over 4.47 lakh distribution transformers and 8,312 ring main units.
TNEB said the current interruptions are largely localised and are linked to factors such as sudden spikes in local demand during peak hours, underground cable faults, jumper cuts and snapped lines, transformer overloads or failures, and tripping or faults at substations. It also cited weather-related disruptions such as rain, wind and lightning, planned maintenance shutdowns, tree branches touching lines and other external damages, equipment stress in fast-growing urban areas due to higher consumer load, and feeder/RMU-related faults.
